Mayors gather to advance key issues affecting Ontario’s big cities

 Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and Ontario's Big City Mayors (OBCM) met on Friday to advance key issues impacting Ontario’s largest cities.  Topics discussed included housing, homelessness and public safety.

“Our cities are seeing rapid growth and with that growth, we have increasing pressures” said City of Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “Kitchener is committed to accelerating housing, including advancing affordable and supportive housing in our community.”

OBCM is looking to the federal and provincial governments to further their commitments to building strong cities by working with municipalities to develop a new long-term funding model and Municipal Growth Framework.

Recently, the cities of Toronto and Ottawa have received a “new deal” commitment of funding to support large scale capital projects and investments in transit, community safety and shelters and other social programs. With the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, OBCM has renewed their call for the province to sit down with municipalities to review the provincial-municipal fiscal framework.

"As fast-growing municipalities, we bear major costs for maintenance and growth of community infrastructure and services, yet municipalities do not have the available financial tools that grow with the economy, build housing and support our social needs like mental health and homelessness,” said Mayor Vrbanovic. “A new approach to funding growth will have a very direct and positive impact on people by supporting the services that they count on.”

The City of Kitchener stands ready to continue working with all orders of government to ensure that our community has the infrastructure needed to enable housing and for a strong Kitchener and a stronger Ontario.

Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) includes mayors of 29 single and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more, who collectively represent nearly 70 percent of Ontario’s population. OBCM advocates for issues and policies important to Ontario’s largest cities.

For more information, please contact:

Shannon Weber, Chief of Staff
City of Kitchener
519-741-2200 ext. 7795
Shannon.weber@kitchener.ca