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Toronto – Toronto Mayor David Miller will be wearing his “One Cent Now” button for a while longer.

The mayor issued a decidedly frustrated statement in response to the federal government’s Economic Statement.

“I’m disappointed with Minister Flaherty’s decision not to re-invest the federal government’s ballooning surplus in cities; after all, the federal government collects nearly all of its money in cities.

“The government has the opportunity now to show a real commitment to Canada’s urban centres by leaving behind a fraction of the wealth generated in the places 80 per cent of the country lives. Otherwise, cities are left funding their growth through property taxes, the most regressive form of taxation. Further, the future prosperity of cities will be put at risk and the federal government will see those surpluses dry up very quickly.

“Cutting the GST shows the government has the fiscal room to dedicate one cent of the sales tax to municipal infrastructure. If there’s room to cut, there’s most certainly room to share.”

Meantime, Toronto’s Budget Chair, Shelley Carroll says the statement is insulting to Canadian cities.

“It’s really a slap in the face for all the major cities in Canada… This government was present at the Canadian Federation of Municipalities this summer and they (the federal government) heard that all (cities involved) endorse the One Cent Now campaign.”

Carroll adds that while the GST reduction may sound good to Canadians, it’s unlikely they’ll really see any benefit from it.

“Any citizen in the city of Toronto will tell you that the last time they had the GST reduced by a penny, it didn’t really make a difference in their lives.  Four hundred and fifty million dollars given to the city, to invest in transit, to invest in infrastructure, to in its roads and other hard surfaces, would make a big difference in the lives of every person who lives in the city of Toronto.”