Cities are increasingly the engines that drive the Canadian economy. In order to keep our economy growing, Queen’s Park must make significant investments in communities like Brampton to ensure that they remain great places to live, work and play.
The Province has identified Brampton as a high growth city. We will need a commitment from the next provincial government to make critical investments and ensure tools are in place to support that growth.
- Fund Peel Memorial Hospital
- Bring a University to Brampton
- End Reliance on Municipal Property Taxes
1. Fund Peel Memorial Hospital
Brampton’s population is expected to grow to nearly 800,000 by 2031. While the Brampton Civic Hospital is an excellent facility, it simply does not have the capacity to service the needs of our growing community. The plan for an Integrated Health and Wellness Campus at the former Peel Memorial Hospital site would provide essential health care capacity in Brampton.
While paying for healthcare is a provincial responsibility, municipalities are required to pay a portion of the cost of new facilities. Cities are no longer allowed to use Development Charges to pay their local share, leaving property tax payers to foot an inequitable share of the bill.
Brampton residents already contribute to Ontario’s health care system through personal income taxes and health premiums. If the City is required to pay for new hospital facilities with property taxes, it will impact the City’s ability to provide other core municipal services and replace aging infrastructure.
To underscore the importance of a second hospital in Brampton, Council committed $60 million towards the identified $120 million community share to proceed with the estimated $420 million plan. This commitment is contingent upon Provincial government approval of the entire revitalization plan at Peel Memorial.
Although the Province has approved the plan, they have yet to commit to the full funding for an Integrated Health and Wellness Campus on the former Peel Memorial Hospital site.
What Brampton Needs from the Next Provincial Government:
Commit to funding the revitalization of the Peel Memorial Hospital site.
Provide funding tools to support local heath care by:
- Reinstating the ability for cities to collect development charges for hospital funding, and;
- Providing long term sustainable provincial funding to support comprehensive health care for all Ontarians.
2. Bring a University to Brampton
Brampton needs a university to ensure that this city is a centre for learning excellence where residents can get the skills needed to succeed in a rapidly changing global economy
In moving towards this goal, the City of Brampton has formed a strong relationship with the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. In 2002, City Council invested $2.5 million over five years in the Sheridan Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technology, which helped to kick-start a major capital expansion program at the Davis Campus. City staff also supported Sheridan’s efforts to expand university programming.
However, more needs to be done to build Brampton’s creative economy through higher education, lifelong learning, training and skills development.
What Brampton Needs from the Next Provincial Government: Establish a university in Brampton.
3. End Reliance on Municipal Property Taxes
Cities like Brampton are responsible for more than 50% of the roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure that citizens rely on, yet only receive 9 cents from every tax dollar collected.
Communities across Ontario rely on the antiquated property tax as the main source of funding for the programs that citizens depend on – a tax that was put in place before Canada was established as a country. The services that cities like Brampton provide have evolved since then, but the property tax has not.
The property tax alone is not sufficient to fund the long-term needs of municipalities. In high growth communities like Brampton, this has placed an unfair burden on property tax payers, strains on local services and pressure on essential infrastructure repairs.
What Brampton Needs from the Next Provincial Government:
- Don’t download costs, or add new ones to Ontario’s already limited property tax base.
- Commit to completing the financial uploads of social and other services, as outlined in the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review.
- End municipal reliance on the property tax as the primary source of revenue for municipalities by establishing municipal revenue sources that will grow with the economy.