Ford sends list of asks to Trudeau ahead of Ontario, federal budgets

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is continuing his campaign-style start to the year with a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outlining what he wants from Ottawa as the two governments prepare to unveil their budgets.

In a letter addressed to Trudeau on Thursday, Ford listed his signature Highway 413 project, a recently announced Milton GO train expansion and carbon pricing as key priorities.

The premier has started the year leaning into signature talking points and affordability.

In February, he unveiled new legislation, the Get It Done Act, containing key wedge issues, including carbon pricing and road tolls. The bill, if passed, would also extend a freeze on the cost of driver’s licences and cut the environmental approvals needed for some projects.

Ford has also been on a tour of the province with his housing minister, handing cities that exceed their housing targets additional money. At the press conferences, complete with giant novelty cheques, the premier has railed against the federal Liberal government’s carbon pricing policy.

At his latest housing stop in Pickering, Ont., on Wednesday, Ford said he “doesn’t understand” why the federal government is sticking by the policy.

“If they don’t start putting money back in people’s pockets instead of filling their pockets, guess what? They’re going to get annihilated, as I’ve said before, they’re done,” the premier said. “They’re done like dinner.”

Trudeau, for his part, has highlighted the rebates mailed to people in Canada as part of the carbon pricing scheme and the threat of climate change.

“My job is not to be popular, although it helps,” Trudeau said in Alberta Wednesday. “My job is to do the right things for Canada now and do the right things for Canadians a generation from now.”

The federal price on carbon is set to increase on Apri 1.

In his letter to Trudeau, Ford reiterated his opposition to the price on carbon, also asking for the federal government to commit $3 billion to a GO train link between Toronto and Milton and for roughly $1 billion to build roads in the resource-rich Ring of Fire.

Ford also pointed to comments from the federal environment minister made over how the federal government plans to approach new road-building projects in the future.

“I would welcome clarification that the federal government will continue to work with provinces and territories to fund new roads, highways and public transit projects,” the premier wrote in his Thursday letter.

In particular, Ontario has been asking the federal government to lift a freeze on its signature Highway 413 project.

Ottawa used the Impact Assessment Act in 2021 to pause the provincial highway, meaning Ontario has not been able to build the route. The current rules mean it must wait until the federal government is satisfied the provincial plan won’t harm certain species.

A Supreme Court of Canada opinion in 2023 suggested the law may not be constitutional, something the Ford government went to court to have confirmed.

“The federal government must provide us the certainty we need by acknowledging that its Impact Assessment Act does not apply to Highway 413,” Ford wrote in his letter. “Until we receive this certainty, Ontario will continue its ongoing legal challenge.”

The attorney general’s office did not respond to questions asking about the status of its court challenge.

The renewed calls to unfreeze Highway 413, cancel carbon pricing and send extra federal dollars to Ontario come as both governments finalize their budgets.

Ontario is set to table its budget on March 26, with the finance minister promising in a social media post the new financial plan “without raising taxes and fees or putting more burden on businesses and municipalities.”

The federal government will table its budget on April 16.