One of Canada’s foremost commentators on communities and social issues is a big fan of local government, local residents and local solutions to the challenging social issues communities face now and in the future.
In fact broadcast/newspaper commentator and author Gord Hume says you can count on the federal and provincial governments to do less in the future when it comes to poverty and housing issues.
Hume was speaking at the Empire Theatre in downtown Belleville tonight (Wednesday) at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Community Development Council of Quinte.
Gord Hume. (Photo: Quinte News)
Hume said he expected the provincial government to continue downloading programs and services on to local governments forcing municipal councils and local agencies to think outside of the box and collaborate like never before.
However he stressed that municipal leaders in Ontario had to become much more vocal, aggressive, and persistent in demanding that the province share a part of its revenue from sales and/or income taxes.
“The property tax is simply a bad tax. It’s useless. There’s no way that tax alone will ever raise enough money to help deal with poverty, housing, transportation, and education issues.”
While praising the Quinte region for its natural beauty and growing arts and culture scene, Hume said the region faces a lot of serious social issues. “There are homeless people living among you. There are many children arriving at school hungry.” I hope you’ll start and continue a community wide dialogue on how you can best lift people up and help them become productive in this society.”
Hume was impressed by the Community Development Council of Quinte’s work in its 30 years of existence.
The CDC prepared and helped distributed over 13,000 Good Food Boxes to families in Hastings and Prince Edward counties last year and 1,500 children were helped by the Good Baby Box program.
Over 500 people grew their own fresh vegetables in CDC community gardens and the organization facilitated over 60,000 diaper changes last year.
The mayor of Belleville, Mitch Panciuk, opened the evening by saying “at the end of the day people have to help each other where they live. Everyone is held back when significant numbers of people are left behind. We as a council and many other groups and individuals have to get involved in tackling our problems. This new council has already doubled our support for the vulnerable in our community to $300,000 from $150,000.”
Council members from Stirling-Rawdon, Prince Edward County, Hastings County, and Tweed also attended the celebration.
