When Did Conservatism Stop Meaning Respecting the Taxpayer?

I have always believed government should mean respecting taxpayers, spending carefully, encouraging competition and allowing local communities to make decisions in their own best interests. That is why I am increasingly concerned about what we are seeing from both Queen’s Park and Ottawa. Too often, municipalities are offered money with strings attached: accept the conditions, change local policy or risk losing funding. Sometimes those conditions and their long-term consequences aren’t nearly as clear to residents as they should be when the money is announced. Ontario’s Development Charge Reduction Program is one example. On September 8, 2026, Pickering Council considered participating in the program, which requires participating municipalities to substantially reduce residential development charges for three years in exchange for access to infrastructure funding. Council supported moving forward. I was the only member of Council to vote against it. My concern was simple: development charges help pay for infrastructure required by growth. Reduce those charges and the roads, fire protection and other services still have to be provided. The bill doesn’t disappear. Government funding isn’t free money either. It is taxpayers’ money being returned to taxpayers — often with conditions attached. Sometimes, without even knowing what those conditions may be. Now Ontario is imposing “Buy Ontario” procurement requirements on municipalities. I support Canadian businesses, Canadian workers and Canadian manufacturing. But municipalities also have an obligation to obtain the best overall value for taxpayers. Price matters. Quality matters. Availability matters. Delivery time matters. Competition matters. If restricting competition increases costs, taxpayers ultimately pay the difference. There is also a larger contradiction Canadians are entitled to question. The federal government reported spending approximately $12.5 billion on international assistance in 2024–25, including hundreds of millions categorized specifically for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, along with funding for sexual and reproductive health initiatives abroad. Whatever one’s view of those programs, Canadians are entitled to ask about priorities. Municipalities are being told to find efficiencies, manage enormous infrastructure pressures and accommodate unprecedented growth. Families are struggling with affordability. Yet billions of Canadian tax dollars continue to be spent internationally. Before governments tell municipalities there isn’t enough money here at home, taxpayers deserve to know why their priorities are being placed elsewhere. This issue extends beyond money. When upper levels of government push aggressive housing and growth targets, municipalities are left dealing with what happens on the ground: traffic, roads, emergency response, infrastructure capacity and public safety. If development is moving faster than local infrastructure can safely support, municipal representatives should be prepared to say no. If residents overwhelmingly oppose a decision being pushed from above, their representatives should make their voices heard. Municipal government is closest to the people. We see the roads. We hear from residents. We know where infrastructure is failing and where communities are being stretched. That local knowledge should matter. Premier Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney have both spoken about defending Canadian interests in the face of economic pressure from President Donald Trump. Prime Minister Carney has even said Canada should never accept “a deal at any price.” I agree with the principle. But it should apply at home too. Municipal leaders should be equally prepared to stand up to Queen’s Park and Ottawa when policies imposed from above don’t serve the communities we were elected to represent. That doesn’t mean fighting other governments for the sake of fighting. It means cooperation without surrender. If I have the privilege of serving as Pickering’s next mayor, I will work constructively with Queen’s Park and Ottawa. Those relationships matter. But my first responsibility will remain with the people of Pickering. Municipal leaders need to ask difficult questions, challenge bad deals and push back when decisions made elsewhere put local taxpayers, infrastructure or public safety at risk. Regardless of which political party controls Queen’s Park or Ottawa, one principle should never change: The people we represent come first.