Meet the Brampton official fighting to keep Canadian cities funded

A Brampton official has just been reappointed to a nationwide committee to help oversee thousands of municipalities in Canada, and she has a massive to-do list. 

Rowena Santos, Councillor for Wards 1 and 5 in Brampton has been appointed another term as the Chair of Municipal Finance, Infrastructure and Transportation for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). 

The federation — comprising numerous elected officials from all over Canada — is purpose-built to share information amongst a network of municipalities and generate new programs and policies.

With roughly 2,100 municipalities under observation, plus the areas in Brampton she manages, Santos isn’t shy to mention how the city she helps oversee provides a stable foundation to help assist the other couple thousand. 

“Canada’s population grew by more than 1.1 million and as our country rapidly grows, housing affordability and chronic homelessness are an urgent concern, with local governments like Brampton, on the forefront to tackle these challenges,” Santos told INsauga.com via email. 

With financial oversight being a major pillar of her work, Santos was able to relay that, while each Canadian city bolsters unique requirements, there are prominent throughlines that go through nearly all of them.

Santos says local governments are “handcuffed by an outdated funding model from the 1800s,” a model where Canadian cities are expected to match housing targets and maintain infrastructure and services to support residents in their daily lives.

The antidote for what Santos deems an archaic system is the FCM’s incentive surrounding an updated “Municipal Growth Framework.” This program, in essence, is designed to generate a revenue tool that will grow parallel to the Canadian economy concerning municipal funding. 

According to Santos, the requirements of communities nationwide — and by extension — Brampton, are moving at a limping pace as numerous sociopolitical issues tear through the security net the FCM has been trying to establish for years.

“Our cities and towns build and provide services like roads and road maintenance, public transit, sidewalks, active transportation infrastructure… and so much more while also quickly reacting to emerging issues like COVID-19, climate change, gender-based/Intimate partner violence, auto-theft, and encampments,” says Santos.

Beyond the foundational strain impacting the national quality of life, Santos aims to take the lessons she is learning as a Councillor in Brampton and implement potential solutions nationwide.

However, the task appears much easier said than done. 

“Expectations continue to rise for cities to absorb the challenges that come with growth while providing an increasing number of services, mostly downloaded by other orders of government. We are expected to plan, build and do more, but how do we pay for it?” says Santos. 

Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon are in the process of absorbing key services like roads and waste management from Peel Region into the individual municipalities — a plan some say could come with a hefty tax hike.

According to Santos, the foundation of municipal infrastructure funding in Canada is built on a model that forces officials to manage municipal needs with only 10 cents for all tax dollars collected. 

“When we can’t pay for everything on the property tax dime, we must compete against other municipalities and beg for money from other orders of government. And maybe, just maybe we will get our fair share,” says Santos. 

For Santos, the folly of the current system hits close to home, as she indicates that Brampton has been in a state of “chronic underfunding” for years, noting that a city supporting a population of 700,000 still only has one emergency room. 

Beyond basic medical requirements, a lack of transit investments, supportive housing and mental health/addiction support continues to put a massive strain on the coffers of Brampton. With these variables impacting the quality of life for her city, Santos grows further concerned as Brampton’s population trajectory is anticipated to trend upward. 

“Brampton’s unprecedented population growth with a provincial housing target of 113,000 new homes by 2031, is projected to add 300,000-400,000 residents, further exacerbating these inequities. It will cost Brampton, $2-billion in infrastructure to service this growth,” says Santos. 

While Santos and the FCM continue to manage the current cash flow dictated by non-municipal agencies—  until a foundation for their Municipal Growth Framework takes effect — Santos indicates that Canadian municipalities will have no choice but to continue relying mostly on property taxes and wait for a fair share of funding from other orders of government.

However, when it comes to where she calls home, Santos states, “For us in Brampton, ‘fair share’ has never been the case.”