The Mayors' Summit, hosted by Toronto Mayor David Miller, produced a communiqué calling on the federal and provincial governments to provide more revenue and legislative tools to assist cities in meeting the social, economic and environmental challenges they face.

"Winnipeg has led the New Deal discussion by consulting our citizens over the last six months. Winnipeggers told us very clearly that they expect the province and federal government to share existing resources with the city," Mayor Murray said.

"Mayors across Canada are now speaking with a united voice to ask for fair treatment of cities as partners and to ask for the tools we need to meet the needs of our communities."

Among the ideas emerging from the Mayors' Summit:

• Rebating 100% of the GST paid by municipalities and their agencies.
• Immediately accelerating investment in urban infrastructure through existing programs.
• These changes are requested for the 2004 federal budget.

As part of a longer-term solution, the Mayors want provinces and the federal government to:

• Allow cities to retain more locally-generated wealth by sharing tax revenue that grows with the economy, such as federal and provincial sales tax revenue.
• Invest in Canada's municipal transit and transportation infrastructure at the level of US and Western European governments.
• Involve major hub cities as partners in policy, program and budget deliberations on issues which have a direct impact on major urban centres.
• Introduce flexibility and improve the delivery and supply of existing affordable housing programs to focus on serving the needs of Canadians.

Toronto Mayor David Miller hosted the mayors of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax and city councillors representing the mayors of Vancouver and Quebec City for the past day-and-a-half.

Winnipeg's proposed New Deal, launched in September 2003, is now being redrafted to reflect community consultations in which more than 8,500 Winnipeggers got involved, through letters, email, phone calls, seven public Town Hall meetings, two Internet Town Hall meetings, 68 community workshops, as well as meetings and delegations with the Mayor and City Council. The New Deal Web site (winnipeg.ca/newdeal) received more than 27,000 unique visitors.