Toronto is mentioned 35 times in the 2008 provincial budget that was tabled this afternoon. Tellingly, however, seven of those 35 Torontos are in the context of “Greater Toronto Area” or “Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area,” six mentions are in background information, two are actually “outside Toronto,” another two are in footnotes and one is in the address for the provincial publication store.
Here are the new gifts in Toronto’s Easter basket:
-$497 million for public transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area as part of the MoveOntario 2020 plan, which equates to all of Metrolinx’s “quick win†projects (all of which have been previously announced). For Toronto this means projects titled “TTC Transit City Light Rail Transit Head Start†($7.1 million), “Yonge Subway Capacity Improvements†($293 million), “Yonge-Finch-Steeles Bus Rapid Transit†($5.7 million).
-$100 million for repairing social housing across the province, of which Toronto’s share is not specified.
-$25 million to the University of Toronto to build a new Munk School of International Studies.
-$57 million increase to business and economic development “primarily as a result of one-time support for the University of Toronto — Rotman School of Management’s new Prosperity Institute.â€
-The province is commissioning (for an unspecified number of dollars) a report by U of T academics Richard Florida and Roger Martin on the changing composition of Ontario’s economy and workforce.
-$9 million to the Ontario College of Art & Design for a new digital media lab
-$8 million to expand the Pathways to Education program to two additional Toronto neighbourhoods plus $2.9 million for the existing Regent Park Pathways to Education program.
-$9 million for the Toronto Ronald McDonald House.
And though we were teased with the prospect of municipalities getting a share of any provincial surplus beyond $800 million, the budget released today only anticipates a $600 million surplus*, which would leave Ontario’s cities and towns with no new funds at the end of this fiscal year.
This is all mighty unimpressive to me.
While fiscal prudence may be in order due to the struggling US economy and our weakening manufacturing sector, constraining investment in our already crumbling cities when we’re still experiencing economic growth is hardly a reassuring signal. It distresses me to think about how much further we’ll fall if and when the next recession hits Ontario — whenever that may be.
If there’s any silver lining to be had here it’s that none of the new investments in municipalities are on the operating side of the ledger. That may mean a substantial announcement is forthcoming when Premier McGuinty announces the results of the Provincial-Municipal Review in June, which are expected to take effect next year. On the other hand, this could just be the prelude to a dreadfully disappointing spring.
*Correction: The surplus for 2007-08 is $600 million while the 2008-09 surplus is estimated to be $800 million. In any event, this means no new funding for municipalities under the proposed formula for handing out provincial surpluses.
Photograph by LexnGer.
3 comments
This article is illustrated with the perfect photo.
On the other hand, this could just be the prelude to a dreadfully disappointing spring.
I think you could add another disappointing spring. Sigh.
Most of the $293-million for Yonge Subway capacity improvements won’t actually be spent in the immediate future. This is a mluti-year project stretching out to about 2015 at a total cost of about $350-million.
What we are seeing is a new style of “current year” funding announcements where money is paid into trust accounts as a current expense (so it can be announced) but does almost nothing to address short to medium term operating or capital budgets at the municipal level.