Regional councillor wants more provincial funding, urges MPPs to advocate at Queen’s Park

Regional Councillor Doug Craig is urging local MPPs to head to Queen’s Park to strike a new deal between the Region of Waterloo and the provincial government.

Craig will table a motion at the Strategic Planning and Budget Committee at the Region of Waterloo on Wednesday.

In the motion, Craig notes that the cities of Toronto and Ottawa have reached new agreements to upload infrastructure costs to the provincial level of government.

The Ontario government will deliver $9 billion to the City of Toronto over the next decade to help with the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway projects.

“There’s no reason why the Region of Waterloo cannot get the same kind of help on our level,” the councillor noted.

Craig says that a fair and equitable deal would help the region alleviate the pressures of downloading the price tags of capital projects to local taxpayers.

Regional staff are currently working on the draft budget for 2025, aiming at a property tax increase in the range of 8 per cent.

“These agreements didn’t just happen,” said Craig. “MPPs from those various cities of Ottawa and Toronto worked behind the scenes to get a new deal. I want out MPPs locally to do the same thing.”

Craig has been calling for more provincial support for some time, including in the ongoing battle to offer supports for those who experience homelessness.

“I wouldn’t suggest that politicians at the municipal level should be directing people off the streets,” said Craig. “It’s the Ministry of Health that’s got to come down here with new programs of how to treat people who are very difficult to deal with and need our immediate care.”

Regional council recently extended the funding of the Erbs Road Shelter to 2030 and beyond.