Federal & Provincial Governments Pledge to Help Fund Toronto Rapid Transit Projects
Last week the Federal and Provincial governments pledged nearly $9 billion, $4.89 billion Federal and $4.04 billion Provincial, towards five (or six, depending on how you break it down) Toronto rapid transit projects. The Relief Line, SmartTrack (which includes both GO Transit improvements and the Eglinton West LRT), the Scarborough Subway Extension, the Eglinton East LRT, and the Waterfront LRT will all be funded over the next 10 years.
As is the case with many of these announcements, some of the funding announced now is in fact being re-announced, having already been pledged in various different transit packages. In particular, $1.24 billion of the $4.89 billion Federal commitment had already been announced for SmartTrack as part of a commitment made in 2016. The $660 million that had also already been committed to the Scarborough Subway Extension under the previous Federal administration is included in that $4.89 billion amount. So in reality, this announcement represents $2.99 billion of new funding.
[Many other Canadian cities were promised similar Federal, and in some cases, Provincial funding for rapid transit projects – Editor]