Okay, maybe not a few billion...

I was afraid that the speculated 3 billion was too good to be true.

But we'll take a billion. Besides, there's nothing for me like watching Stephen Harper give Dalton McGuinty the warm fuzzies.

[Edited to add: whoops, the article in the previous post didn't predict three billion from the feds - they predicted 3 billion combined from the feds and the province. My mistake.]

According to the article, the reformaTories are calling their new transportation plan "FLOW", but the article doesn't say what the acronym stands for. If I were feeling a bit more creative, I'd come up with something better, but this is the best I can do:

Fall 'Lection, Open Wallets

Sorry for being cynical. Harper doesn't give a sweet goshdarn about transit, the environment, or gridlock. What he cares about is getting elected. We'll get that funding now, but look out if he gets a majority government. Or heck, even another minority.

What the GTTA needs is stable funding. This cash infusion is nice, but we also need an ongoing commitment to maintain and continue to build up our system. And we don't just need it from the feds, but also the province. According to the Commissioners at the TTC meeting at the end of February, the province was dicking us around on the Spadina subway extension to York University and Vaughan, saying they would only release their committed funding dollars IF the feds coughed up their share.

Before the Mike Harris government took power at Queen's Park in 1995, the provincial government provided steady funding for the Toronto Transit Commission.

Ontario paid 75 per cent of the TTC's capital needs – new vehicles, repairs to facilities and the like – and picked up half the operating losses not covered by the farebox.

If that formula were still in place, in 2007 the TTC could expect Queen's Park to shell out $678 million – $140 million as an operating subsidy and $538 million for capital costs. Instead, the TTC expects about $227 million from the province for capital expenses this year.

...

Ontario has offered to pay one-third of the proposed York University subway extension, if Ottawa pays a third.

Hello? What's wrong with this picture? Didn't the provincial Liberals run on a platform of restoring the cuts made by the "Common Sense Revolution"?

If they're still playing games like that with transit funding after this election pandering by the reformaTories is over, then they're going to leave the transit systems in the GTA starved for cash. We get jerked around enough by the Feds. The province doesn't need to join in.

So, Dalton can be all "delighted" for now. Who am I to rain on his parade? But he'd better start coughing up once his new friend Steve is done sucking up to the suburban swing voters in the 905. We need stable funding.