The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has put a Portage la Prairie city councillor into a role that will help steer federally elected officials the right way, regarding issues that municipalities face.
Joe Masi was appointed the Chair of Election Readiness Group by FCM President Geoff Stewart. The group's focus will be to look at strategies, issues, and tactics surrounding the next federal election, to ensure that municipalities are not thrown to the side.
Masi explains the different issues that he hopes will be addressed on the campaign trail.
"Obviously, the need for more infrastructure funding to improve and increase the Community Building Fund," says Masi. "Public safety is also going to be a big issue. Policing costs, how we deal with crime and so on. These are key issues also facing Portage la Prairie"
Another area that he would like to focus on is additional growth revenues for municipalities. While municipalities are responsible for about sixty per cent of the infrastructure, such as roads, parks, and water treatment plants, taxpayer dollars are not dispersed accordingly.
"We get about eight cents of every tax dollar," states Masi. "The federal government gets 50 cents, and the provincial government gets 42 cents, that's not sustainable."
Masi stresses that the goal of the FCM is not to increase taxes, but rather rework the percentages, so that more of each tax dollar remains with the municipality.
He explains that if property taxes in Portage are raised by one per cent, that will generate around $137,000 for the municipality. They would much rather find alternative ways to improve revenue through growth revenues, rather than relying more on property taxes on residents.