Toronto Mayor John Tory says he’s delighted the city will get more than half of $8.34 billion in infrastructure funds the federal government is allocating to Ontario – but only if the province ponies up its own cash.
Toronto is set to receive about $4.8 billion for its transit network expansion plan, including major projects of a subway relief line, a surface rail Smart Track plan, light-rail transit on Eglinton East and waterfront transit.
READ MORE: Toronto to receive $840M of federal funding to improve public transit
But the funding is contingent on the province funding at least 33 per cent of the costs, and Tory is calling on Ontario to go beyond that, with a 40-40-20 cost sharing.
Tory says he doesn’t yet know where Toronto’s 20 per cent share would come from, since the provincial Liberal government denied him the power to impose road tolls – a decision that has soured the relationship between the two levels of government.
READ MORE: Toronto mayor urges federal, provincial governments to help pay for Relief Line
Even so, Tory says he would be astounded if the province left billions of dollars on the table by saying they won’t commit to providing 33 per cent of the funding.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca has not yet responded.