Money made available through provincial budget surplus

Print

E-mail

Text

Toronto got what amounts to a $238-million payment on its credit card from the provincial government, as Public Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman and Etobicoke-Lakeshore MPP Laurel Broten announced a $1.1-billion Ontario infrastructure package.

Torontonians can thank the 2008 provincial budget surplus for the cash. Earlier this year, the Liberal government at Queen's Park passed the Investing in Ontario Act, which sends any government surplus larger than $600 million to municipalities to fund infrastructure projects.

With a surplus of $1.7 billion, a total of $1.1 billion is being distributed across the province, and Toronto's share is $238 million.

Smitherman called the announcement "great news for Toronto," touting its job creation potential.

"It will create more jobs for workers across the city and at the same time wisely invest in our infrastructure, which is key to making sure Ontario is on track for the future," he said.

But Toronto's budget chief Shelley Carroll said no one should expect the $238 million to go into new projects. More likely, it will simply go toward mitigating Toronto's growing debt for projects that have already been approved, such as the Transit City light rail network, and create room for others on the cusp of approval, like the proposed tear-down of the eastern Gardiner Expressway.

"We have to put this before the budget committee and the executive committee, but from my perspective I'll be saying to councillors, you've done a great job of loading projects into the hopper for our five-year plan, that gets the city to a place where it can accommodate three million people," she said. "This allows us to execute that plan without going into the financial hole. I don't see this as a moment to load much more into the hopper."

The $238 million will make a considerable dent in Toronto's growing levels of debt, the total of which sits at $2.6 billion. By itself, the money could erase the new debt that the Toronto Transit Commission is expected to accumulate next year; its debt guideline is $200 million going in to 2009.

Carroll said the city will have to decide whether to use all of that money this year, or to spread it out over future years.

"We may want to put some of this away, because the province won't necessarily have this surplus next year," she said.

Mayor David Miller wasn't available for interviews Monday. But in a statement issued by his office, Miller thanked Premier Dalton McGuinty.

"Ongoing provincial/municipal partnerships with Toronto and Ontario's other cities, towns and regions are essential. This government understands that only when Ontario's municipalities succeed can the province succeed," said Miller in the statement.

"Through the city's 2009 budget process, this contribution will allow us to invest in Transit City and other city-building initiatives that matter to Torontonians and that help make the city clean, green, livable and prosperous."