Railway crossing safety: will municipalities be on the hook Save article Remove saved article

For most Canadian municipalities, the 1990s were characterized by rampant government offloading. With the federal and provincial governments struggling under mountains of debt, programs were cut and responsibilities pushed downwards to municipalities who had no choice but to shoulder these new charges.

As the fiscal situation stabilized toward the end of the decade, some municipal governments hoped they would be able to breathe again, seemingly because there was probably nothing left to offload. Or was