Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says he’s “not prepared” to accept a third-party review of the city’s budget in order to curb spending by four per cent at the provincial government’s request, arguing the municipality’s books are already audited every year and the offer doesn’t appear to give cities much input about what gets shaved down.
Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday announced that the province is willing to pay up to $7.35 million for outside financial experts to review large municipalities’ and school boards’ budgets in order to find “efficiencies” that would help tackle the province’s $11.7 billion deficit.
“We will continue to work with the province but I’m not interested in us going down the path of having someone come and audit our books when they are audited, quite frankly, every year,” Watson said, speaking to reporters after city council’s meeting at city hall on Wednesday.
“And secondly, when they’ve already predetermined what they’re going to cut before their auditors come in and audit our books.”
According to Ford, the provincially-funded budget reviews are optional and the savings identified would be redirected to core services.
Four per cent of Ottawa’s budget amounts to approximately $150 million, Watson said.
He warned that losing that amount of money in the middle of the city’s fiscal year would result in “significant” cuts to municipal services and layoffs.
The mayor said the city hasn’t received any additional details about the province’s proposed budget reviews, adding he remains unsure whether the proposed savings target would take into account the government’s previously-announced funding changes to Ottawa’s public health unit, paramedic service and tourism office.
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Asked for comment on Watson’s remarks and concerns, a spokesperson for the province’s Treasury Board President provided the following response:
“Line-by-line reviews can help change government, change it for the better, and change it for the people in four key ways:
- Through modernizing services and better utilizing digital and shared service models;
- Through finding better ways of administering government;
- By ensuring government funding is directed to those that require it the most; and finally,
- By maximizing the value of government assets and putting them to their most productive use.”
“We are confident that with the right supports, four cents of savings on every dollar is an achievable goal,” Hayden Kenez wrote. “We’re sure that our transfer payment partners will be as interested in returning the province to fiscal health, while protecting core services, as we are.”
‘These are cuts’
Watson, however, argued the Progressive Conservative government’s approach has “thrown a wrench in the whole system,” reiterating that the City of Ottawa passed its 2019 budget before the province began announcing funding changes.
“If they want to develop a good partnership, the way to do that is not to go and constantly blindside us with these cuts to basic services whether it’s health care or paramedic service,” the mayor told reporters, saying he’s “concerned” about the city’s finances for the rest of the year.
“It’s not helpful for the stability of any organization, public or private, to have this kind of uncertainty thrown at you literally every week,” he said.
Watson, too, challenged the premier’s choice of language as the province calls for reduced spending across Ontario.
“The premier talks about efficiencies. These are cuts,” the mayor said. “The city is being cut. Health, paramedics, tourism… they’re not efficiencies.“
— With files from The Canadian Press
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