If you were waiting to find out what the federal Tories have in mind for transit and infrastructure, don’t expect anything that wasn’t announced before the election started.
Although the full Conservative platform is set to be unveiled today, it likely will not include new promises toward Canada’s “infrastructure deficit.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government has signed deals with the provinces under its $33 billion “Building Canada” fund, which is to be delivered from 2007 to 2014.
Tory finance minister and Whitby-Oshawa incumbent MP Jim Flaherty tells In Transit, “We’ve already made our infrastructure commitments to TTC and the transit authorities, and we have our framework agreement and our FLOW agreement with the Government of Ontario.”
The one billion-dollar joint FLOW program will pay for extending the Spadina subway to Vaughan plus money for Mississauga Transit, Brampton Transit, VIVA in York Region, Durham Transit as well as expansions of Highways 404, 407 and 7.
Would a new Conservative government in Ottawa help fund the recently unveiled Metrolinx draft Regional Transportation Plan? Flaherty says, “This has to be worked out between the levels of government co-operatively. It isn’t up to one level of government to say, ‘Here’s a shopping list of 50 billion or 100 billion dollars … and here’s what you get to pay.’ That isn’t the way it works.”
Quick-Tip
Q: What’s with the new platform numbers at Union Station?
Tip: Officials say the numbers, changed over the past weekend in the Union rail and bus stations, are simpler and follow standards used elsewhere in the world. Thankfully most trains will leave from the same locations as people are used to, with just the platform numbers being new.
