Wynne won’t raise HST for infrastructure
aising the HST to help municipalities pay for road, arena and other infrastructure improvements would “fly in the face” of her efforts to ease pocketbook pressures on Ontarians, Premier Kathleen Wynne says.
She told councillors from across the province at the convention of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario that she was surprised by the group’s call for a one-per-cent HST hike to raise $2.5 billion.
“I have not heard that discussion from mayors,” she said at the convention in Ottawa on Tuesday, a day after AMO president Lynn Dillon issued the challenge. Wynne’s Liberal government, which is up for re-election next June 7, cut electricity bills 25 per cent this year after skyrocketing hydro prices infuriated consumers and fuelled attacks by opposition parties.
The premier said AMO’s push to raise the HST to 14 per cent from 13 would mean “constituents paying more taxes.”
“That’s why it’s not something that we’re going to look at.”
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and his NDP counterpart, Andrea Horwath, also said “no” to the association’s HST request, preferring other ways to ease financial pressures on municipalities.
Wynne suggested a less drastic solution to find ways to fund local projects that are languishing in programs from the province.
“Let’s figure out what’s the best way for them to be paid for,” Wynne said.
“There are billions of dollars that are flowing into municipalities right now. Let’s figure out what the gaps are.”
Solutions could include Ontario taking financial responsibility for some local roads that are more suited to being under provincial control and finding ways to help small municipalities to pay for arena and other recreational facilities, she said.
“In small municipalities it is very, very difficult to raise those funds,” Wynne acknowledged.
Although AMO’s board of directors unanimously supported the push for a one-per-cent rise in the HST to create a “local share,” the premier pointed out that there isn’t unanimous support at the convention.