Like a frustrated TTC user, Toronto is still looking down the track for $750 million in federal funds to help replace Bloor-Danforth line subway cars hurtling toward the end of their lifespan.
Mayor Olivia Chow on Tuesday applauded new funds to house refugees and other items in the federal budget, but was clearly disappointed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government left out her top request — the subway car money.
“We need to put the order in yesterday” for the manufacture of the vehicles that will take years to deliver, Chow told reporters at city hall, citing an urgent need to replace the cars that are all at least 25 years old and have an intended life of 30 years.
TTC chief executive Rick Leary last year called the existing Line 2 cars “very, very frail” and raised the spectre of having to “shut things down” if Toronto can’t get commitments to help the city fund replacements. Last July, just before a derailment on the now-shuttered Scarborough RT line, the TTC cancelled a request for proposals for new cars for the east-west line, saying it didn’t have enough funding.
Last autumn, as part of his government’s financial “new deal” with Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford committed $750 million toward the new subway cars — but only if the federal government matches the contribution. Chow said she failed to talk the province out of that condition. Now that it’s a signed deal she now needs a least a commitment, even if not immediate dollars, to give the city confidence enough confidence to reinstate the order.
Chow noted the budget includes $20 billion for infrastructure funding in Ontario but there is no word on how much Toronto will get or what types of projects, which could include floodproofing, the new Ontario Line subway, light-rail lines and other priorities.
“You can’t miss how those cars need to be upgraded or we need new ones, “when you ride Line 2, compared to the much newer cars on Line 1, Chow said. “I can’t say I’m confident,” that Ottawa will come through, she said. “I’m hopeful they will come to the table and say ‘Here’s the funds.’”
The mayor was more upbeat about the Trudeau government commitment of $400M this year, and a total of $1.1B over three years, to help provide emergency funding for refugee claimants arriving in Toronto and expected to total 6,000 this year alone.
The funding follows a partial-year refugee commitment from Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister and Toronto MP, after Toronto’s budget chief threatened to hit Torontonians with a six-per-cent property tax surcharge branded the “federal impacts levy.”
Chow also praised several housing initiatives in the federal budget that she said will help Toronto spur new housing construction while helping alleviate the homelessness crisis and efforts to get people out of park encampments and into supportive housing.
“For Torontonians, we can start building and some percentage of it will be affordable,” thanks to the flow of federal and provincial dollars, she said.
Harbourfront Centre is also getting a boost with badly needed funding to help the arts hub make critical capital repairs.
The funds come even as Canadian Heritage warned in a report completed last year that money was getting tight for the centre, and it was time to look harder for other sources of revenue.
Some $57 million in federal funding has flowed to Harbourfront since 2018, but the funding from Ottawa is supposed to be for operations, freeing up Harbourfront to find and use other sources of revenue.
“The organization has not realized this,” an internal evaluation of the federal funding found.
Still, Ottawa came through again Tuesday with $10 million over two years for repairs that will help Harbourfront be able “to continue welcoming visitors from Toronto and beyond.”
It’s one of several Toronto-specific pledges within the $61.2 billion in spending Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government unveiled Tuesday, money that also includes boosts to national programs likely to benefit the city as well.
Among other Toronto-specific pledges in the $61.2 billion spending plan is the opening for development of some federally owned lands. The budget promises to free up land at Downsview for modular homes, as well as land that could be used for 100 homes at a neighbourhood development near that site called Arbo.
Another cultural organization getting a bump is the Toronto International Film Festival, which will receive $23 million over three years.
The money from Ottawa follows a decision by Bell, one of the festival’s lead sponsors, to pull their support at the end of last year.
Other corporate backers include the Toronto Star.
A new cultural hub is on the horizon as well with plans for a museum space in the city for Sikh arts, culture and heritage that will be developed in partnership with the Royal Ontario Museum thanks to a new $11-million funding program.
Another organization getting a boost in Toronto is the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The spy agency is getting $655.7 million over eight years for what’s described in the budget as enhancing its intelligence capabilities and its “presence in Toronto.”
And, the long-awaited dream of high-frequency rail service in the Toronto-Quebec City corridor also gets a boost in the budget to the tune of $371.8 million over six years to move ahead with the design and development of the service.
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