Canada’s Big City Mayors meet with federal leaders to champion a plan for growth

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and Canada's Big City Mayors Caucus (BCMC) met yesterday with the Honourable Sean Fraser, Canada’s Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities, to discuss the urgent need for a new fiscal framework that meets the needs of our rapidly growing communities. This meeting was part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM’s) launch of Making Canada’s Growth a Success: The case for a Municipal Growth Framework.

“To maintain and deliver essential services in Canada’s fastest growing community, we need an updated revenue framework,” said City of Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “Kitchener and municipalities across the country are expected to deliver more services while operating with a policy and funding framework that fundamentally has not been changed since 1867.”

The need to modernize municipal funding, including tying federal transfers to population and economic growth is critical to facilitate the necessary infrastructure that enables more housing. FCM is advocating for a new, fair and predictable municipal growth framework that will provide more revenue tools to support our rapidly-growing communities.

"From the moment our residents wake up every day to the moment they go to bed at night, our communities count on infrastructure such as clean water, wastewater treatment, transit, and community facilities,” said Mayor Vrbanovic. “Cities like Kitchener bear major costs for maintenance and growth, yet we do not have the financial tools that grow with the economy like other orders of government have to support the services that our residents rely on. We can’t keep doing this with just 8 to 12 cents of every tax dollar collected.”

Kitchener joins the Mayors of Canada’s 23 BCMC cities in calling on the federal government to work with provincial and territorial governments and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to negotiate this growth framework. Now is the time for a mutual commitment to building strong cities by investing in the infrastructure and services required. 

The City of Kitchener, as the largest city in Waterloo region, stands ready to continue working with all orders of government, including our area local and regional partners, to ensure that we are all delivering the essential services that our residents and businesses need and to enable more housing for a strong Kitchener and a stronger Canada.

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The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) unites more than 2,100 local governments at the national level, representing more than 92 per cent of Canadians in every province and territory.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities media release.

For more information, please contact:

Shannon Weber, Chief of Staff

City of Kitchener

519-589-4435