The Communist Party in Ontario is fighting for the following policies during the municipal elections taking place on October 24th.
A New Financial Deal for Cities
- Update the inadequate property tax system:
- Remove education from the property tax
- Cut property taxes by 50%
- Generate revenues from commercial, industrial and corporate wealth not from working people
- Fund cities through provincial statutory grants at levels sufficient to meet the needs of modern cities to provide municipal services, build affordable housing, expand public transit, address climate change, etc.
- In the absence of adequate statutory funding, cities need wealth-taxing powers enabling them to directly tax corporations
- Eliminate all development fees (which will be passed on to tenants and home buyers in higher rents and prices)
- Upload the costs of all programs that have been downloaded to cities from the province (transportation, public health, housing, social assistance and education)
- Return 50% of all road user taxes to municipalities (including gasoline taxes and licensing fees)
Protect and Expand Local Democracy and Autonomy
- Fight to entrench the rights and status of municipalities and school boards in the Canadian Constitution (Since there is no mention of municipalities in the Constitution, cities are regarded as “creatures of the provincial government” which can be created, dissolved, or altered at the whim of the provincial government. This includes the forced amalgamation of cities, the slashing of city council seats, the imposition of “strong mayor” governance; and the overturning of City Council decisions through the Ontario Municipal Board, now known as the Ontario Land Tribunal.)
- Oppose the “strong mayor” powers which undermine local democracy and the public accountability of an elected City Council
- Elected City Councils and the public must be able to determine the size of city wards and the number of elected Councillors
- Abolish the provincially appointed Ontario Land Tribunal which favours developers and mining companies, oversees the environment and conservation, and overturns decisions of elected City Councils
Housing
- Demand the province implement real rent controls and scrap vacancy decontrol; rollback rents to 20% of income
- Treat housing as a public utility and a human right
- Eliminate wait lists for housing by building 200,000 units of rent-geared-to-income (RGI) social housing units; repair existing social housing stock
- Ensure municipal governments hire property standards officers based on an adequate ratio of officers per unit of housing
- Introduce maximum temperatures into the property standards bylaws and ensure the landlord takes responsibility for upholding all the requirements of these bylaws
- Make bedbug and other insect and/or vermin infestations a public health issue
- Provide transitional, supportive and long-term housing to women and children fleeing domestic abuse
- Provide housing for the homeless; no encampment evictions
- Expand municipal control over zoning, land use planning, and demolition or conversion of existing rental housing
- Aggressively pursue a policy of land-banking, whereby municipalities will accumulate land for public use as parks, for social housing construction, public services and transit, etc
Public Transit
- Expand public transit and ensure that it is publicly owned and operated
- Demand the federal and provincial governments pay 100% of capital and operating costs of municipal public transit systems
- Remove all fares; increase ridership, reduce carbon emissions, increase access to services, employment and recreation for seniors, youth, persons with disabilities, low-income people, and those without cars
- Ensure that all public transit and stations are fully accessible
Public Health
- Fight hospital closures and all cuts to public health
- Demand adequate funding and staffing of hospitals and oppose outsourcing of staffing and services, oppose P3 schemes that generate big profits for developers at public expense; demand enforcement of the Canada Health Act
- Adequately fund and expand access to supervised drug consumption sites, ensure a safe and free supply of drugs to users through prescription programs along with humane addiction treatment plans
No Cuts, No Privatization
- Oppose the sell-off of public land, buildings, utilities and services; reverse privatization and outsourcing of staff and services
- No user fees for education, garbage collection, recreation programs and other public services
Child Care
- Provide new childcare spaces and subsidies for quality, public, affordable and accessible childcare for all
- Ensure that the expansion of childcare necessary through the $10-a-day childcare plan does not include private-for-profit providers and fight for free childcare
- Require childcare workers in public and non-profit centres to have ECE (Early Childhood Education) certification; raise the wages of ECE workers
- Introduce 24-hour childcare, for parents who work shift schedules or who have personal/family emergencies
- Expand early learning programs
Education
- A new needs-based funding formula to cover the real costs of public education (as opposed to the current inadequate enrolment-based funding, imposed by the province, which fails to take into account student needs or the unique needs of each board)
- Allow school boards to allocate funding as best serves the needs of their communities
- Use schools as community hubs; open schools for community use on weekends and evenings
- Fight encroaching privatization in the public education system
- Smaller class sizes, more teachers and support staff
- Strong, well-funded Special Education programs
- Curriculum improvements: expand Phys ed, arts and music programs; improve and expand labour, Indigenous and gender studies; focus on critical thinking, eliminate standardized testing; continue to implement a more inclusive sex education curriculum
- No police in schools; more hall monitors; more conflict resolution programs
- Fix our schools: repair schools, provide adequate ventilation, heating and air conditioning
- Fight for the province to provide breakfast and lunch programs to every student at no cost
- Provide childcare centres in secondary schools to assist student parents
- Increased funding for Adult Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs
- A single, universal and quality public school system open to all
- Protect locally elected and accountable School Boards and oppose all efforts to eliminate them
- School board trustees must refuse to implement provincial cuts
Services for Seniors
- Create needed new spaces at city owned Long-Term Care homes
- Adequately fund social agencies like Meals on Wheels
Jobs
- Maintain and expand public sector jobs; expand public and non-profit childcare spaces and centres, build transit, renovate social housing stock, expand accessibility of public buildings, maintain roads and sidewalks
- Adopt a Fair Wage policy (which requires the City and its contractors to pay fair wages (comparable to unionized workers’ wages) to employees
Police
- Reduce police budgets and invest in housing, education, health and public services
- Demilitarize the police and stop allowing for the purchase of military equipment, including armoured cars and drones
- Disarm frontline police units
- Retraining or release of all officers who exhibit racist or fascist attitudes, including those who wear ‘thin blue line’ badges
- Expand programs that de-task police from mental health crisis calls and create community-led crisis response teams
- Establish strong civilian control over the police through a completely independent civilian agency with powers to fire, hire and discipline, that is publicly accountable and transparent, replacing the SIU and other toothless bodies
