Mayor John Tory says he left a meeting with several Toronto-area NDP Members of Parliament on Thursday morning “satisfied” that the party will provide funding for SmartTrack if elected in the fall.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to provide up to $2.6 billion in funding for the rapid transit project last month but with an election looming in October, Tory has been reaching out to other federal parties to secure a matching commitment.
On Thursday, Tory met with NDP Toronto Caucus Chair Andrew Cash and several other local MP’s and said he came away from the meeting feeling confident that an NDP government would make money available for SmartTrack.
SmartTrack, which largely relies on the electrification and retrofitting of existing GO Transit railway tracks, is expected to cost about $8 billion.
“I am satisfied that while their program is different than that of the current government it would allow for the funding of SmartTrack in the quantity that we had discussed during the election, which is one-third,” Tory told reporters at city hall. “It was a productive discussion.”
The money that Harper announced for SmartTrack in June would come from a new dedicated fund for public transit projects that was created in the most recent federal budget. That fund will see $250 million available for public transit projects in 2017, $500 million in 2018 and $1 billion annually after 2019.
Meanwhile, the NDP are promising to create a similar fund that would provide $1.3 billion for transit projects for each of the next 20 years.
Tory said he didn’t get a “specific commitment” about the funding of SmartTrack on Thursday but did get an assurance that some money would be made available.
“What they did say to me is that their method of flowing transit money in substantially increased sums is going to be such that the city will have the flexibility to apply that to SmartTrack,” Tory said.
For his part, Cash told reporters at city hall that the City of Toronto would likely do very well if his party's proposed transit fund becomes reality.
"Our pledge for transit is $1.3 billion over 20 years per year and that will net out very well for the City of Toronto because it will likely be based on population," Cash said.
Tory has met with a number of government leaders in recent months, including Harper, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
Speaking with reporters at city hall, Tory said he doesn’t believe he has received a commitment from the federal Liberals to fund SmartTrack as of yet but will continue to push for it.
“If they choose to do it as the current government has done it by way of a project-specific commitment to finance it I’d be happy with that and similarly if they chose to do it a different way and say ‘look, you can count on having sufficient money,’ I’d be happy with that,” Tory said.
In April, the Ontario government included $2.8 billion in funding to electrify the Stouffville and Kitchener lines in its budget, which represented its one-third share of the total cost of building SmartTrack.
Tory has vowed to fund the city’s one-third share through Tax Increment Financing, wherein a government borrows money to fund the cost of a project and then pays it back using additional tax revenue generated by higher property values and increased development.
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