Let's Get On With What NEEDS To Be Done......-

........and temporarily forget what the leftists would LIKE to do.

Feds: No cut of GST for T.O.

By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA

Toronto and other cities shouldn't expect a cut of the GST, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told a Bay St. crowd yesterday.

Specific infrastructure funding has already been earmarked for Toronto, Flaherty said, and tax cuts introduced in last week's economic statement -- including knocking another 1% off the GST -- helps local businesses and individuals.

"Toronto will save an additional $940 million as a result of the 2 percentage point reduction," he said, referring to GST cuts since July 2006.

As well, funding from the federal gas tax and the clean air and climate change fund has been earmarked for Toronto-area projects, said Flaherty, who is also the minister responsible for the GTA.

"It's a question of the governments getting the money out the door, the local governments getting the projects going so that they can be funded," he said. "In terms of reducing the GST by a percentage point and giving the tax revenue to someone else, it's not going to happen."

Both the federal and provincial governments have already agreed to infrastructure and transit projects across the GTA, and expansion commitments to highways 404 and 407 east.

"We don't need grand designs right now," Flaherty said. "What we need is to get on with the projects that everyone has already agreed, between Ontario and Canada, need to be done."

Flaherty made the comments at the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance's fall luncheon just as the Canadian dollar broke another benchmark against the U.S. dollar.