Mayor Morgan leads Big City Mayors meeting with Carney about accelerating infrastructure funding

Mayor of London, Ont., Josh Morgan discusses the meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and mayors across Canada and what topics were focused on.

London Mayor Josh Morgan was in Ottawa this week leading a delegation of Canada’s Big City Mayors in a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The mayors called on the federal government to ensure funding flows to municipalities in advance of this construction season so that key housing and infrastructure projects are not delayed.

“It was a very productive meeting with the Prime Minister,” Morgan told CTV News Channel. “We got down to business, had a frank conversation, [because] that’s what partners do.”

Morgan serves as the chair of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big City Mayors Caucus (BCMC), a lobbying group representing Canada’s largest cities.

A news release from BCMC warned, “Delays in getting dollars to cities would slow construction, drive up costs, and undermine efforts to deliver housing and economic growth at a critical moment for the country.”

“Mayors share the federal government’s ambition and sense of urgency, which is why we need to work together to get shovels in the ground this season,” Morgan said. “Canada’s housing and trade goals depend on enabling infrastructure and reliable transit in the cities where growth is happening. Housing targets require infrastructure capacity to match.”

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities made several requests of the federal government:

1. Increase the community stream of the Building Communities Strong Fund. This is the most direct and proven way to get local infrastructure projects started quickly.
2. Develop a long-term national infrastructure plan. Canada needs a coordinated plan that supports housing, trade and economic growth.
3. Strengthen supports for vulnerable residents. Work with provinces and territories to improve supportive housing, mental health services and community-based policing.
4. Renew the federal-provincial-municipal funding partnership to modernize how we fund local governments in line with their growing responsibilities.
5. Protect and streamline transit funding by reversing the $5 billion cut to the Canada Public Transit Fund. Predictable transit funding contributes to the federal government’s goal of making life more affordable for Canadians while reducing congestion that limits trade and business in our cities.

“The community stream is the only national program that gets federal dollars working in cities right away and it needs to be better leveraged,” explained Morgan. “Cities need support that arrives in time and at a scale that matches the needs on the ground and our shared ambition to deliver immediately for Canadians.”

According to Morgan, the mayors also discussed public safety with the prime minister as a critical issue facing cities.

The mayors stated they look forward to seeing Bill C-14 passed into law to make it harder for violent repeat offenders to get bail, and to working with the federal government to tackle emerging issues like extortion.