Canada To Inject $2.9 Billion Into Ontario Infrastructure

Support will create jobs, boost local economies

Ottawa, Ontario, December 23, 2008 – The Government of Canada, along with the Province of Ontario, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the City of Toronto, today announced that the Ontario federal Gas Tax Fund agreement extension has been signed.

This agreement guarantees that the federal government will provide Ontario communities with $2.9 billion from 2010 to 2014 under the federal Gas Tax Fund, enabling municipal governments to proceed with infrastructure priorities that will create jobs for Ontarians and stimulate local economies.

“This predictable funding will help municipalities improve their infrastructure today and in the future,” said Canada’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird. “Investing in the modernization of infrastructure such as roads, public transit systems, water and wastewater treatment facilities helps to create jobs for hard working Canadians and boosts our economy.”

“When this agreement was first signed, the McGuinty government took an historic step and enabled our municipal partners to work directly with the federal government on deciding the best way to share federal gas tax funding,” said Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, the Honourable Jim Watson. “Through this extension agreement we are continuing to ensure that federal gas tax funds are invested directly in Ontario’s communities of all sizes.”

“This extension ensures that federal gas tax funding contributes to hundreds of infrastructure investments each year, right across Ontario,” said Peter Hume, President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. “All three orders of government, federal, provincial and municipal, are working together to create employment opportunities and to strengthen our communities economically and environmentally.”

“The extension of Gas Tax funding from 2010 to 2014 continues the partnership between the City and the Government of Canada in providing long-term investment in public transit for the City of Toronto,” said David Miller, Mayor of Toronto. “Investment in public transit and our Transit City proposal is City Council's top infrastructure priority.”

Through its unprecedented Building Canada plan, the Government of Canada is working with the Province of Ontario and its municipalities to provide support to help meet infrastructure needs across Canada and to stimulate the economy.

Ontario is providing $314 million in provincial gas tax funding to municipalities in 2008, for a total of more than $1.6 billion by 2010.

For more information about federal and provincial Gas Tax infrastructure initiatives, please visit www.infrastructure.gc.ca, www.buildingcanada.gc.ca, or
www.amo.on.ca.

Chris Day
Press Secretary
Office of Canada’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister
613-991-0700

Infrastructure Canada
613-948-1148

Adam Grachnik
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
416-585-6492

Brian Lambie
Association of Municipalities of Ontario
416-729-5425

Stuart Green
Office of the Mayor, City of Toronto
416-338-7119