Canada’s mayors are not yet ready for a collective embrace of Stephen Harper, regardless of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s pre-election bear hug with the prime minister.
But Harper did appoint a former mayor to deal with Canada’s current mayors, and his own blue surge on May 2 bled into Canadian cities.
And so it was, in Halifax over the weekend, that a majority government with urban seats met the country’s civic leaders, who are dealing with huge problems ranging from gridlock to crime to crumbling infrastructure.
Denis Lebel came, he spoke, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities exhaled a little easier.
The minister of transport, infrastructure and communities, and the former mayor of Roberval, Que., Lebel told delegates he will continue to work with them on long-term infrastructure programs.
He also promised that his government will enshrine in law a $2 billion gas tax transfer to cities, allowing them to plan down the road — although he did not index the fund to the rising price of gas.
As they listened to him on Sunday, one delegate turned to the federation’s incoming president, Kitchener, Ont., Councillor Berry Vrbanovic, and said, hopefully, “Once a mayor, always a mayor.”
“It means your heart is always there with the grassroots at the municipal level,” says Vrbanovic.
But this is also a government that is promising to balance the budget and has not specified where it is going to find $4 billion in annual savings over the next four years.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said any strides made in the relationship between Canada’s cities and the Harper government was the result of opposition pressure during successive minority governments.
Delegates here also know how difficult it can be to knock the Harper government off its agenda, or even to get it to diverge verbally in private meetings.
“But we have been assured there is no bloodbath looming for cities,” said one delegate.
The minister promised that the government will move to a long-term program to help cities build transit and ease gridlock before the current $33-billion Building Canada Plan expires in 2014.
But he was silent on details.
While there was no sense in Halifax that Conservatives owe anything to cities because of their electoral success, there is no doubt that the Harper government will now be expected to deliver in any number of areas.
Almost all of those areas will have an impact on the quality of life in urban centres.
They are promising a number of law-and-order measures to make cities safer, but cities pay two of every three police salaries in this country and Toronto is grappling with the potential of police layoffs.
As Vrbanovic pointed out in his inaugural speech, without adequate high-speed transportation in cities, Canada cannot compete globally.
Unchecked housing price spikes are making it impossible for some cities — most notably Vancouver — to attract the workforces they need. Antiquated social housing and rental shortages are leaving too many Canadians homeless, putting a heavy burden on municipal social services.
“The era where Canadian municipalities collect only eight cents out of every tax dollar paid in Canada is not sustainable,” Vrbanovic said.
Especially not, he said, when other countries are looking at their cities as their economic engines.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi is among those to have argued that it’s time Harper paid cities back, because they delivered his majority.
With 80 per cent of Canadians living in urban centres and expectations of this majority so high, Harper must deliver on quality of life in our cities.
Oh, and Ford, who broke with tradition and endorsed Harper before the federal vote?
His affections don’t travel.
The mayor stayed in Toronto, his office saying he didn’t need to go to Halifax when he has a phone.
Tim Harper is a national affairs writer for the Toronto Star syndicate.