Poll: Municipal Governments are Under-Funded

May 5, 2008

A poll commissioned by the Federation of
Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has found that there is consensus across Canada that
municipal governments are under-funded. The poll showed that 90% of people believe that the federal government
should provide financial support to assist municipal governments with
infrastructure issues and did not see property taxes or spending cuts as
reasonable sources of revenue for municipalities. Additionally, 68% of those
polled supported the idea of the GST being raised to 6% if the extra funds
raised were transferred to municipalities. Read the full polling results here.

Our Centre for Civic Governance conducted a poll in BC and Ontario on municipal and school board issues in 2007, with similar results. To see those findings click here.