Province cannot ignore Toronto’s financial needs, Mayor John Tory warns
It would be a mistake not to help with transit and housing, he tells Finance Minister Charles Sousa.

thestar.com
By BETSY POWELL
March 13, 2017

Mayor John Tory is warning Queen’s Park it would be a “grave mistake” for the province to ignore Toronto’s urgent funding needs in its upcoming budget, particularly after killing the city’s plans to impose road tolls.

“I’m not trying to anger anybody else in any other part of the province by saying this, but Toronto’s success, Toronto’s contribution to the well-being of this province, including its financial well-being, cannot be under-estimated,” Tory said at city hall Monday after meeting with Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa.

“In my view it would be a grave mistake for the Government of Ontario to choose not to step up on housing and transit, in particular, which are vital to the future well-being of this province.”

Tory said the provincial government now has the opportunity to make up for its decision to reject tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, which “significantly impacted” city hall’s relationship with the province.

“It hasn’t been business as usual,” Tory said, adding relations won’t be repaired until the Liberal government satisfies the needs of the nearly 3 million people who call Toronto home.

Tory is facing mounting fiscal challenges, including the ballooning cost of the one-stop Scarborough subway extension that has left a promised light rapid transit line along Eglinton Ave. East short of funding.

Sousa, Liberal MP for Mississauga South, made no firm commitments Monday and noted communities across Ontario also have priorities and require support.

But he reassured Tory the province values a strong Toronto, but also a strong Golden Horseshoe and acknowledged the city’s challenges, “having worked in Toronto most of my life, having been stuck in the parking lot called the QEW.”

“We get we need some predictable, sustainable funding for the city, and we are having discussions about some other tools that may be available for the city to move forward,” Sousa said, with a stern-looking Tory standing nearby.

Sousa also attempted to shift focus to the federal government, which is tabling its budget next week.

“Just as Toronto is looking for support, Ontario is trying to ensure that the province receives a fair share.”

But Tory said Toronto is expecting to receive funding from Ottawa but needs matching provincial funding to build transit and pay its $864 million share of the repair backlog at Toronto Community Housing.

If that funding doesn’t appear, it will be the province that will shoulder the burden of shuttered social housing units and transit lines that don’t get built, the mayor warned.

“Let me be very clear, any closure of such (social housing) units would be a direct result of the inaction of the other governments to partner with us in carrying out those repairs,” he said.

“Projects of that magnitude were never intended to be carried out by property taxes alone.”