York Region leaders head to Ottawa to request federal cash

yorkregion.com
Feb. 25, 2016
By Lisa Queen

As part of the first trip of its kind to Parliament Hill for York Region leaders, politicians will meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday to lobby for funding for a number of regional projects.

“This is a big deal for York Region. This is a great opportunity for us to (meet) face-to-face with those in the federal government who are making the decisions,” regional chair Wayne Emmerson, who is leading the contingent, said.

“I know we’ll get results. I’m confident.”

In addition to Emmerson, the group includes mayors Virginia Hackson, Margaret Quirk, Tony Van Bynen, Geoff Dawe, Justin Altmann, Frank Scarpitti, and regional councillors Jack Heath, Joe Li, Nirmala Armstrong, Brenda Hogg, regional CAO Bruce Macgregor, director of government relations and executive assistant to the chair Lina Bigioni and Greg Stasyna, program manager of training, exercise and public education.

Vaughan and King Township are not sending representatives.

The group left by bus Wednesday at noon and is expected to arrive back late Thursday night.

The cost for the bus is $1,000 and 15 hotel rooms at $169 a night each comes to $2,535.

In addition to seeing Trudeau, the contingent is meeting with York MPs and officials from a number of federal departments including finance, environment and climate change, infrastructure, innovation and science and economic development.

The trip marks the first time York has sent a group of leaders together to promote the region’s infrastructure priorities and seek funding from the federal government, Emmerson said.

York politicians and officials are arguing for the need for more federal dollars to help the region keep up with its tremendous growth, he said.

The region now has a population of more than 1.1 million, which will grow to 1.8 million by 2041.

The region has many shovel-ready and shovel-worthy projects ready to go that would improve residents’ quality of life while creating jobs and protecting the environment, Emmerson said.

The group will lobby for:

• Extending the Yonge Street subway north from Finch Avenue to Richmond Hill’s Langstaff urban growth centre, which would help remove many of the 2,400 buses serving the route every day;

• Completing the final four Viva rapidway segments, including along Yonge from Richmond Hill to Newmarket, east from Unionville station to Cornell, along Hwy. 7 west from Islington Avenue to Hwy. 50 and at Yonge Street and Green Lane;

• Commitments for long-term investments in affordable housing and developing a national housing strategy;

• Funding for the Upper York Sewage System, needed to accommodate growth in East Gwillimbury, Newmarket and Aurora until 2031; and

• Supporting public sector broadband initiatives throughout the region, which suffers from areas lacking broadband connectivity.

While York politicians aren’t expecting to get a firm commitment for federal funding, the trip is about raising the region’s profile as the government delivers on its policies, including the March 22 budget, Emmerson said.

The trip will help the region build partnerships with Ottawa, Hogg said.

“York Region needs a significant investment in transit infrastructure and we are in competition with larger municipalities across Canada,” she said.

“We are looking to pay respect, make personal business connections and advance the infrastructure investment needs of our region. One road, one bridge, one subway at a time.”

Hogg is also meeting with the CEO of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, Brock Carlton.

“It is an opportunity to work on our relationship with the federal government, always a good thing, and to promote some of the infrastructure projects that will benefit our region, such as the UYSS, the expansion of GO and changes to the road grid,” Dawe said.

“These are all extremely expensive projects and our goal would be to get greater federal commitment to some, if not all, of these projects.”