Proud to be debt-free
County warden earns applause at Power Hour, but warns of looming infrastructure deficit
Peterborough County Warden Joe Taylor drew applause on Wednesday evening while speaking to a business crowd when he said the county is debt-free.
Although it may not be true for much longer, Taylor said: County council is considering borrowing money to address what the warden called an “infrastructure deficit” – bridges and roads in need of repair, for instance.
“Council is now discussing it,” he said.
Taylor was speaking at the Power Hour, a dinner organized annually by the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce. It was held at The Venue; about 150 people were there.
After dinner, the crowd listened as Sandra Dueck, the chamber’s policy analyst, asked questions of four local politicians onstage: Taylor and also Mayor Daryl Bennett, Status of Women Minister and Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef and Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal.
Bennett said the city isn’t debtfree: it is $109 million in debt.
“Debt is something I’m averse to, personally,” Bennett said. “But I’m aware we have to maintain the assets we have.”
Bennett said that despite the debt, the city had its credit rating upgraded in 2017 from the Standard and Poor’s bond rating agency.
The city’s current rating is AA, meaning the city has a strong capacity to meet its financial obligations.
Meanwhile Bennett also said he’s concerned about the mounting provincial and federal debts that young Canadians are soon to inherit.
Leal said that the Ontario government is still planning to spend $130 billion over the next decade on infrastructure – projects such as bridges, wastewater treatment plants and enhanced transit systems. But he said it’s justified.
“The infrastructure investment creates jobs,” Leal said.
Investing in infrastructure now allows the provincial government to take advantage of low interest rates as it build assets that will have a 50-year life expectancy, he said.
Meanwhile the federal government projected a deficit of $28.5 billion at budget time a year ago.
Yet Monsef said the federal government’s investments have reinvigorated the economy: it has created jobs, she said, and working people can spend money.
The government took a risk when it made its investments lately, Monsef said.
“But our plan is working,” she said.
Meanwhile Leal, who is also the Minister Responsible for Small Business, was asked by Dueck how he justifies the minimum wage hike - particularly considering the hike is taking place too quickly for the taste of many Ontario business people.
Leal noted that the minimum wage went up to $14 on Jan. 1, and it will go up to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2019.
He said he understands that many businesses would have liked to see that increase happen incrementally, over a longer time-frame.
But ultimately, Leal found an “unevenness” among workers: some are doing very well, he said, while many others are working long hours at low-paying jobs and cannot even feed themselves.
“When you look at income inequities in Ontario today ... we just fundamentally believed something had to be done.