Transit to receive ‘substantial’ new funding
Transit Windsor hopes to take full advantage of its share of almost $22 billion in mostly new transit and environmentally friendly project funding announced by the provincial and federal governments on Wednesday. “We’ve been waiting for this,” said Transit Windsor executive director Pat Delmore. “We knew it was coming. We have done our own estimates, but I don’t want — we’ll wait to see what the province actually announces, what is our amount.
“But it’s going to be substantial. We know that.”
The announcement made in Mississauga amounts to almost $22 billion in spending between the two levels of government, with the federal portion through to 2028 valued at $11.8 billion. The provincial government will kick in a further $10 billion over the same time period, roughly one third of project costs, short of the 40 per cent to match federal spending that cities had hoped for to ease their fiscal burden. Further details will be unveiled in the coming days when the agreement itself becomes public. The province has been tasked with determining which projects are worthy of funding.
About $2.1 billion of the money is previously pledged federal funding to build light rail in Ottawa, flooding protection in Toronto’s Port Lands and to help pay for the Scarborough subway extension in Toronto.
Overall, Toronto is receiving almost $4.9 billion in transit funding under the federal-provincial deal. Last year, as a result of Phase 1 of the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund, Transit Windsor received $10.2 million.
“We had 26 separate projects, we did a lot of work on our facility and maintenance area, we purchased 24 new buses, and they all had matching dollars from the city,” said Delmore, noting that the first of the new buses arrived last week. “Also, some technology, enhancements to our technology, and we’re getting 120 bus shelters this year. All of those projects, as well as a couple of cycling projects.” Delmore said Transit Windsor is embarking on a service delivery review this year, but beyond that, declined to speculate on what other items might be targeted for funding.
“We anticipate that’s kind of going to be our road map,” said Delmore.
Mayor Drew Dilkens and city environmental sustainability and climate change supervisor Karina Richters were unavailable to comment on what environmental project funding the city might pursue. Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi has been on a push to sign funding deals with provinces and territories before the end of the month. Signing the agreements is necessary before any of the $33 billion that Sohi oversees can flow to provinces and ultimately to municipal projects.
Sohi said the cost-sharing agreement isn’t exactly what big-city mayors requested last month, but it recognizes that provinces build other infrastructure that doesn’t receive matching federal funding. Sohi said the flexibility in the Ontario deal will be repeated in other ways in the remaining deals the Liberals intend to sign by the end of the month. “Flexibility means that every agreement is going to look different, and some provinces may get flexibility in certain areas, other provinces may get flexibility in other areas,” Sohi said in an interview after the announcement. “Needs are unique and that’s why our approach builds in flexibility where necessary.” Provinces and territories also asked Sohi for flexibility in how they use federal funding, including letting them substitute federal dollars in place of their own to help pay for projects already on the books. Sohi said federal funding won’t replace existing provincial commitments and the majority of provinces are finding additional money on top of their existing plans.
The agreement with Ontario is the largest that Sohi needs to sign with provinces and territories to kick-start funding approvals under the second phase of the Liberals infrastructure program. Provincial and municipal officials have previously said that the time it took to receive funding approval under the first phase of the Liberal spending program contributed to delays in project start dates.
The fine print of the deal with Ontario will be unveiled in the coming days, but the wording of the agreement may not exactly mirror one Sohi signed with the Northwest Territories last week. The federal-territorial deal gave flexibility to move money from public transit work to so-called “green” infrastructure projects that help communities mitigate the effects of climate change. Sohi said the same flexibility may not be extended to provinces like Ontario, with large public transit systems such as in Toronto, which will receive almost $4.9 billion in transit funding.
“One of the outcomes we want to achieve through public transportation system investments is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “So that’s why we created some flexibility for Northwest Territories, where their transit needs are not as high, so we’ll allow them some flexibility to use some of their money for green infrastructure focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” The territorial deal also laid out expected community employment benefits from any project and set timelines for project spending over the next decade. Similar wording exists in Ontario’s deal that will require the province to show how large projects are creating jobs for a “broader array” of Canadians in the construction sector.