McCallion asks Ottawa, Queen’s Park for help
Rebecca Penty, National Post
Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
David Miller isn’t the only GTA mayor looking for more cash. Hazel McCallion told Mississauga’s board of trade she needs more help from Ottawa, the province — and even the owners of basement apartments in the city.
“Peel doesn’t get enough money for social costs. Why is Peel shortchanged when all the growth is in the 905?” Ms. McCallion said at the board’s annual luncheon meeting yesterday.
As operating costs grow in the city of 700,000 and infrastructure need repairs, Ms. McCallion called for more support from federal and provincial governments, but stopped short of asking to be bailed out of financial woes.
“We don’t want any handouts,” Ms. McCallion said, explaining Mississauga and Hamilton waste money through mismanagement, but Mississauga deserves the funding she is demanding.
“Both Toronto and Hamilton could be better managed,” Ms. Mc-Callion said, adding that Toronto’s council asked for new taxes before trying to save money through evaluating social services.
“They are now looking at their services, which should have been done before they went out and asked for more taxes,” the Mayor added in an interview afterwards, indicating city staff are instructed to find $1-million in savings every year through finding duplication in services.
Ms. McCallion said a big problem in Mississauga is the number of federal and provincial buildings that do not pay property taxes to the city.
“The federal and provincial governments do not pay taxes like every other business does,” Ms. McCallion said. “They look after themselves.” The Mayor named Pearson International Airport as a key site evading taxes.
“The airport, if they paid taxes like you folks do, it would come to somewhere between $45-million and $50-million to the City of Mississauga,” Ms. McCallion said.
Ms. McCallion also said the growing number of illegal basement apartments are costing the city property tax revenues, because landlords are not paying taxes for illegal apartments.
