Urban growth cannot pay for itself

By MARIANNE MEED WARD

Last Updated: 30th November 2008, 3:33am

Gary Carr isn't afraid to scrap. That probably owes something to his days on the ice, playing goal for the Boston Bruins' farm team and later the Quebec Nordiques' minor league squad.

Hockey players have to be willing to throw their weight around. In sports, it's called body checking. In politics, it's called negotiation.

Last week, Carr body checked the province, the feds, and developers in Halton, where he serves as regional chair. Carr presided over a unanimous vote by regional councillors that there would be no water and sewer hook ups for new housing units if developers and the provincial and federal governments don't come to the table with money to cover added costs arising from this population growth.

"There has been this idea of growth paying for itself," said Carr when we spoke by phone last week. "But the capital and operating side of growth isn't paying for itself."

The region has costed out a more accurate price of growth -- about $38,500 per housing unit, for water, sewers and roads. They've asked developers to pony up or forget running water in the new homes.

If growth proceeds without that cash, either services are cut or property taxes go up to cover the shortfall.

"I'm not prepared to do either," said Carr. "Now the ball is in their court. If they can't meet the [funding] requirements, we won't add new homes in Halton."

SERVICES STRETCHED THIN

The region encompasses Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville, the latter two facing the most growth. Those towns are expecting to absorb another 40,000 homes, with an average of three people per home. That's an influx of 120,000 people on services that are already stretched thin, says Carr.

That's why senior levels of government also need to come to the table with cash. The region hasn't asked for a specific amount, but has said whenever the government has money to spend, the region has a list of projects ready to go. Those include roads, water and waste water projects.

But the real priority, says Carr, is hospitals.

Oakville's hospital is approved but delayed. Burlington's Joseph Brant is facing a deficit. And Milton's hospital is overburdened.

"If we add the new housing units, we're going to have a hospital built for 30,000 people trying to accommodate 120,000," Carr said.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize there are going to be even more problems."

He doesn't view the region's water-for-cash stance as picking a fight. Rather, he sees win-win opportunities: Communities get the services they need; government spending provides a "fiscal stimulus" for a faltering economy -- the new global buzzword.

Governments around the world are realizing monetary policy alone -- interest rate cuts, for example -- isn't jump-starting the economy. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Lima last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged his government -- along with governments around the world -- may need to run deficits to spend our way out of the crisis.

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama wants a $700-billion stimulus package ready to go for his signature when he takes office in January.

"If you're going to do a stimulus package, it has to be done at the federal and provincial levels, not on the backs of the taxpayers in Halton," argues Carr.

That's because those levels of government collect the most tax -- the feds 50% of all tax revenue, the province 42%, and municipalities just 8%.

Asking municipalities to pay for growth-related costs through the property tax base risks taxing people out of their homes -- particularly seniors on fixed incomes, says Carr. And there are a lot of them in Halton.

"We're saying to the province and the federal government: If you can't afford growth, why do you think we can?"

It's a reasonable question, and Carr's a reasonable guy. In fact, if you sat next to him over dinner, as I have, he'd be the last guy you'd peg as the "enforcer."

It's a role he plays gently, with a smile and a decent argument; you don't know you've been body checked till you peel yourself off the boards.

As a Halton resident, all I can say is I'm glad he's on my team.