Liberals tout billions in Toronto area transit spending
A progress report on transit and infrastructure investments comes on the eve of an announcement by Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Thestar.com
April 13, 2014
By Tess Kalinowski 

On the eve of a major announcement on public transit by Premier Kathleen Wynne, the provincial Liberals have released a progress report touting the government’s $100 billion in transit and infrastructure spending since 2003.

The report mentions roadwork, bridges, hospital projects and schools, but much of it focuses on transit, particularly investments in the Toronto region.

It cites the $456 million UP (Union Pearson) Express train between Union Station and the airport that will open in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games; $9.1 billion to GO Transit for 10 new stations, 30,000 parking spots and new rolling stock; $1.4 billion for Viva bus rapid transit in York region; and $8.4 billion for new transit lines in Toronto, including the cornerstone of the province’s plan, the 19-kilometre Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT.

The projects, it says, support hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The progress report reads as a precursor to a spring budget and potentially an election if the Ontario NDP refuses to support the minority Liberals’ financial plan.

“Since 2004, we have committed more than $2.7 billion in gas tax funding to Ontario municipalities including $163.4 million for the current interim six-month program,” says the report.

The premier is expected to signal in a noon speech Monday at the Toronto Region Board of Trade how her government will move ahead on funding transit expansion.

Most of Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan, The Big Move, remains unfunded. The provincial agency says the region must invest about $2 billion annually to build highly anticipated improvements such as a relief subway in Toronto, a Hurontario LRT in Mississauga and all-day, two-way GO service to sparsely served areas such as Brampton and Milton.

These are among about a dozen so-called “next wave” projects Metrolinx says are waiting for funding from a dedicated transit revenue stream.

While Wynne has repeatedly said taxpayers understand they would have to pay for relief from the region’s growing road congestion, last month she bluntly rejected two of the most lucrative potential revenue sources, a hike in the HST and a gas tax.

They were among the revenue sources that had been recommended by Metrolinx last spring and another panel of transit experts the government subsequently appointed, headed by former Conference Board of Canada CEO Anne Golden.

When Wynne came out against those taxes, board of trade president and CEO Carol Wilding was blunt about her group’s concern. The business group was among the first to endorse new taxes for transit when it endorsed a gas tax and HST hike last year.

“The government has removed from consideration, globally proven, best practice revenue tools that can be broadly applied. . . . The board is calling on the provincial government to detail how it will fund the regional transportation plan in the upcoming budget,” Wilding said in a news release.

Wynne has not, however, rejected other recommendations from the Golden panel, including the possibility of designating the provincial portion of the HST paid on gas and fuel taxes to a transit fund that could be leveraged to borrow up to $2.50 for every dollar.

The progress report released Sunday notes that GO ridership rose about 5 per cent to 65.5 million trips in 2012-13, from 62.4 million the previous year. It has made a commitment to expand Kitchener GO service to all-day, two-way runs. But the government has not named a date to live up to the promise.

Among the recommendations Metrolinx put forward in its investment strategy last year was increasing its multi-sector board to include six municipally appointed representatives. The government has also so far been silent on that finding.