Top budget priorities for Waterloo region heard by Ontario's finance minister

Access to broadband Internet in rural areas, funding to help settle immigrants in Waterloo region, improvements to Highway 7, support for education and local hospitals and a commitment to two-way, all-day GO trains were among the issues Ontario's finance minister heard Wednesday in Elmira.

Minister Rod Phillips wrapped up his budget consultations in the region Wednesday morning, holding a meeting where groups and politicians were invited to present their needs and wants in three minutes or less.

In all, 37 people from various groups and organizations, as well as local politicians, offered their thoughts to Phillips in the main hall of the Elmira Legion.

TK Pritchard of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region reminded Phillips that the previous Liberal government had promised to increase funding for centres by 33 per cent but they've never seen that money.

"I think that there's a lot of advocates who are speaking out and trying to get the government to understand that we are in a crisis right now. It's not just our centre, it's centres across the province that have significant wait lists," Pritchard said in an interview after his presentation.

Pritchard said it was a challenge for speakers to get all their pointsacross to the minister in just three minutes.

"I think it's hard, one, for speakers to communicate that within that amount of time, but it also speaks to how many priorities there are across the province," Pritchard said.

Hospitals, flood management and libraries

Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak talked about the importance of predictable sources of funding, particularly for smaller municipalities like his own that want to do larger projects.

The new president of St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener, Lee Fairclough, thanked the government for recent funding to expand cardiac care access, but explained more is needed to better serve the patients who are seeking care. She said some labs are running into the evenings to keep up with demand.

Samantha Lawson, the chief administrative officer of the Grand River Conservation Authority, said this area has seen flooding in recent years due to record-breaking storms. In 2019, the province cut funding for flood management and she asked Phillips to either reinstate that funding for flood management, or if that can't happen, to stop cutting the funding.

There were calls for more funding for skilled trades, for personal support workers to self-regulate their industry, and for child care.

Kitchener Public Library CEO Mary Chevreau said libraries are really "for the people" and require funding to help people who come to them for a variety of services, not just books.

Many local needs

Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky also spoke at the consultation, saying the city needs more funding to help deal with a number of major issues like homelessness, mental health, the opioid crisis and affordable housing.

"Income tax, the business profit tax as well wealth expenditure tax, HST, those are all what I call the Robin Hood taxes and those all go 100 per cent to the Ontario or federal government. We want those back," he said. "Our job is to repatriate that money back to our community and I was giving the finance minister some ideas of where our greatest needs are."

Jaworsky, along with several other speakers, mentioned the need for two-way, all-day GO trains between Waterloo region and Toronto.

"We have as many people coming from the GTA into Waterloo region as we have going the other way," he said. "I can really help drive the economy, and again, if you drive the economy, you're going to drive those other tax revenues for the Ontario government. So my advice was, put your foot on the accelerator."

Phillips said he heard from a community that works well together and that he and fellow MPPs Mike Harris, who represents Kitchener-Conestoga, and Belinda Karahalios of Cambridge, had a lot of notes to review.

"I heard very reasonable proposals from a lot of people, we'll take that back and do our best to put this budget together," he said.