WELLAND — The NDP’s Municipal Affairs critic, Jeff Burch, released the following statement regarding Doug Ford’s decision to give up on his scheme to force municipalities to amalgamate:
“Doug Ford threatened to trample over democracy once again when he decided he knew better than Ontarians about the kind of local representation they deserve at municipal and regional governments. Ford’s flip-flop on forced amalgamations is welcome, but his efforts to try to force municipalities to do what they always knew was wrong has wasted time, money and energy.
“And opening a $143-million fund to push municipalities to make further budget cuts is especially hard to swallow after Ford cut $2 billion from municipalities. Those cuts — putting a deep hole in things like public health and child care — need to be reversed.
“This back-track follows the introduction of a Private Member’s Bill (Bill 21) by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath to demand Doug Ford stop playing mayor in Ontario’s municipalities.”
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