Ottawa granted 'breathing space' as Ford postpones cuts

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said the province's decision to hold off on funding cuts to public health, paramedics and child care this year gives the city some much-needed "breathing space," but he remains on guard for 2020 and beyond.

"Today there is a glimmer of hope that the province recognized, I think through pressure and conversation, that they probably made a mistake trying to retroactively put these cuts in place," Watson told reporters Monday.

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"While it's a small step forward that they listened to us with respect to the timing, we still have to negotiate a fair deal [for future years]."

Watson said Premier Doug Ford called him just before a Monday morning news conference at Queen's Park to notify him the PC government would reverse course on funding cuts that affect municipal budgets for 2019.

[It] gives us some breathing space, but we still have the challenge of what the cuts are going to look like in 2020.- Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson

Watson had previously called it "patently unfair" of the province to impose funding changes midway through the year.

Ottawa's city treasurer was planning to present her calculations of the impact of the surprise Ontario budget changes at a June 4 committee meeting. Those figures will now be "in flux," Watson said.

Still, Ottawa is less likely now to have to dip into its reserve accounts, Watson said.

Questions still loom 

The next challenge will be working with the provincial government to understand what cuts or changes it intends to make that will have an impact on Ottawa's future budgets, Watson said.

"[It] gives us some breathing space, but we still have the challenge of what the cuts are going to look like in 2020."

Ottawa's budget planning and deliberations start well before January 2020, so Watson said Ottawa will need to know what to expect.

During his news conference, Ford said the province would give municipalities the extra "runway" they requested, but warned the "status quo" could not continue.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark added that during a meeting with mayors late last week, they acknowledged Ontario was in a "fiscal hole." Clark said he would work with them to find savings.

Watson had earlier rejected Ford's offer to have an independent auditor comb the city's books for savings.

Asked Monday if he would change his mind and accept an outsider's line-by-line review, Watson said he had still not seen details of the offer.