Comment 20395

By Tom Cooper (registered) - website | Posted March 27, 2008 at 12:44:46

I'm not a legal expert, I just work with them, but the various downloads from the federal government to the provinces were generally agreed to by the parties involved. The feds were interested in slashing their deficit; the provinces always want more autonomy. The Social Union framework that Jean Chretien and the Provincial Premiers agreed to in 1999 was perhaps the most prominent (in my mind the most insidious) of those agreements. It did create some national standards, but allowed provinces to maneuver out of some national programs as well. The downloading from the province was a different story. Municipalities are non-entities in our Constitution. Cities didn’t have any say when the Harris government either downloaded costs or forced amalgamation upon municipalities. The limits of cities are contained in provincial legislation – the municipal act and without the power to tax (outside of property taxes and some user fees) cities are generally beholden to whatever the province dishes out to them.

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