Rob Ford cries foul: Ontario rejects plea to preserve services funding Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says the province has rejected his plea to preserve nearly $150-million a year in funding to pay for social services. An angry Mr. Ford emerged from an hour-long meeting with Finance Minister Charles Sousa Monday afternoon saying his pitch to the treasurer "fell on deaf ears." Without the money, and because he is determined to go ahead with a city tax cut, Mr. Ford said he would have to cut social housing. We just have to shut down some programs. I obviously have to go back, without $150-million, go to the housing portfolio, shut down hostels, up private programs," he said. It's going to hurt the most vulnerable people ... And they're suffering enough already. This is just adding insult to injury, this is adding salt to the wound. He also took issue with Mr. Sousa's assertion that all Ontario municipalities must be treated equally. "He said "you're the exact same as other municipalities." Well, you know what? We're not the exact same. We're unique," he said. We have a great city here. We produce more jobs, more revenue than any other municipality. I'm furious. It's not right. The fund was set up to compensate the city for the cost of programs the province offloaded in municipalities in the 1990s. A 2008 letter from the province said Toronto "can expect to receive" the money until 2018. But two weeks ago, Mr. Sousa informed the city he would cut the funds off at the end of 2015. He says the 2008 letter was not a promise to keep paying. Mr. Sousa argues that, thanks to the province re-assuming the tab for some of the programs it previously offloaded on municipalities - the Ontario Disability Support Program, for instance - and forgiving a $230-million loan to Toronto, the city will actually come out $110-million richer in 2016 than it is today. Civic officials, however, point out that Toronto was not paying off the provincial loan in the first place. If it is taken out of Mr. Sousa's calculation, Toronto will actually lose $120-million by 2016. What's more, they contend that Mr. Sousa's math does not take into account all of the programs the province dumped on the cities - such as social housing and the entire operating cost of the Toronto Transit Commission - which Queen's Park is not planning to re-assume.