It isn’t often that a politician has a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Right now, the Federal government has just such a chance.
Canadian cities want $2 billion a year in permanent funding from the federal government for public transit, an investment that’s essential to the long-term future of communities and the nation’s economy, mayors said this morning…
“We can help the federal government meet its climate change objectives,” Toronto Mayor David Miller told a news conference here this morning.
The current Tory environmental platform is a shambles; a patchwork of small, old ideas and new toothless ones. It is designed to produce as much publicity as possible with as little expense and market interference as possible. Signing on to this plan actually gives the Tories legitimate environmental traction; while at the same time making concessions to the crippling urban neglect in this country and removing ammunition from the provinces’ “fiscal imbalance” agenda. In reality the only objection to this plan that I can imagine would be an ideological one as $2 billion, while a large sum of money, is certainly doable in the current fiscal climate… as long as unnecessary tax-cuts are rejected.
The Tory response should be interesting.
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This $2 billion transit infrastructure funding has already been budgeted for in the 2006 Conservative budget. This is not new - just the breakdown of the allocations to the various cities is now being announced. The cities had to come up with appropriate plans and must also match funds. It has always been announced as part of the Conservative plan to also get more people on the buses and out of cars to help with cleaning up the air.
Comment by Lorraine — March 5, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
This is new. The municipal governments are asking for an ongoing commitment, not a one time measure. A commitment with no strings attached and predictability is essential for transit to actually grow in Canada.
It’s nice of you to oblige the Conservative party line though.
Comment by Joseph — March 5, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
No - tomorrows announcement is NOT new money. And the gas taxes for the cities is until 2012. What they want is for this to be permanent. In my opinion there may be a lot of changes by 2012 but they have 5 years of guaranteed funding for now. Also, city funding is usually from the provinces - so if I was a premier I would be getting a little pissed off my mayors trying to jump over them. I can see federal funding for specified projects - like transit, roads, and the newly announced infrastructure funding for upgrading and renovating post secondary institutions. But, for the Feds to put money into city pockets for “unspecified” projects otherwise bypassing the provinces is a recipe for turf wars and totally wrong.
Comment by Lorraine — March 5, 2007 @ 8:11 pm