Ahead of tabling the provincial budget, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, through a letter to Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this week, asked him to provide his governement with billions of dollars worth of investments
Both federal and provincial governments are working towards their 2024 budgets, with Ontario set to table it on March 26, while the federal government scheduled for April 16.
In the six-page letter Ford addressed to Trudeau on March 14, and shared by the Premier’s Office, Doug had asked for additional priorities hoping for either a financial commitment or a legislative change.
These priorities included more than $6 billion funding for infrastructure, specifically roads, highways and public transportation projects including federal government to commit at least half of the capital cost of expanding the transit line which will serve millions of people in Peel and Halton regions.
Ford added that until the province receives this certainty, Ontario will continue its ongoing legal challenge.
Ford’s other demands from Trudeau government inclded funding 40 percent of the capital costs of four priority subway projects included in 2021 agreement, his flagship Highway 413 project to go forward without the need for environmental assessments, the courts to declare the Impact Assessment Act to be void, to either cancel or put a hold on the carbon tax ahead of a planned increase, and to eliminate tax on all home heating fuels.
Ford also said in the letter that failing these Trudeau could get annihilated in the next election.
Other demands of Ford included matching Ontario’s $1 billion commitment to building roads to the Ring of Fire region, clarify the eligibility criteria of Ontario projects for the federal clean energy investment tax credits, provision of funds for “critical infrastructure priorities” to help the province build more homes.
