Visit UrbanToronto.ca for a longer version of this post.

Last Wednesday, February 10, the Government of Canada announced that it was investing $14.9 billion for public transit projects over the next eight years, which includes permanent funding of $3 billion per year for Canadian communities beginning in 2026-27.

According to a government news release, “This [commitment] provides cities and communities the predictable transit funding they need to plan for the future, and is part of our plan to create one million jobs, fight climate change, and rebuild a more sustainable and resilient economy.”

Earlier this week, the Government of Ontario announced that it had selected five priority projects that it hoped the federal government would fund. Four of those projects are in Toronto, part of the transit expansion plan that Premier Doug Ford announced in April 2019. Those four projects include:

• building the Ontario Line subway between Don Mills Road / Eglinton Avenue East and Exhibition Place;
• extending the TTC’s Line 2 Bloor - Danforth subway to McCowan Road / Sheppard Avenue East;
• extending the Line 1 Yonge - University subway to Highway 7 / Yonge Street; and
• extending the Line 5 Eglinton light rail transit line to Toronto Pearson International Airport.

In a surprise part of the announcement, Ontario identified the light rail transit line in Hamilton as its fifth priority project for federal funding.