The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) have released a report, Building Ontario Together, with recommendations for the new federal government’s first 100 days.

The recommendations involve federal-municipal engagement in 15 policy areas, including:

• Strengthening local infrastructure by ensuring federal investments reach municipal governments

  • Strengthen the gas tax fund by increasing it annually from 2 to 3.5%

  • Work with FCM on the proposed National Infrastructure Fund to address municipal infrastructure priorities

  • Work with FCM on the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan to ensure the Plan is meeting the needs of Canadians, such as amending the Plan’s community, culture and recreation stream to include municipal administrative buildings and council chambers

• Modernizing public transit:

  • Launch a permanent federal transit fund

  • Optimize current transit funding to meet local needs, such as eliminating the 15% cap on rehabilitation costs under the existing public transit stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan

  • Speed up the mass adoption of zero-emission transit vehicles

• Making housing affordable:

  • Develop an “affordability indicator” that would include regular reporting n the combined costs of housing and transportation at the household level

  • Continue the Reaching Home homelessness initiative

  • Increase funding and unit targets to (but not limited to) supportive housing and social/affordable housing for Indigenous

• Supporting local climate action:

  • Increase funding for local disaster mitigation and climate adaption

  • Strengthen local capacity to assess and respond to climate risks

  • Support natural climate solutions by designing and implementing the proposed $3 billion in new federal programming with FCM

• Championing rural communities

  • Address the rural Internet access gap

  • Support greater immigration and economic growth

  • Build a rural lens into federal policies and investments

For more information, please see below:

FCM: Building Better Lives Together Report

AMCTO: 2019 Federal Election – Liberals to Form a Minority Government