* How much of this $1.2 billion will stay in Canada?
City ripped over streetcars
The TTC hasn't jumped the tracks, but maybe it jumped the gun announcing the new Bombardier streetcars, the province's infrastructure minister says.George Smitherman said yesterday he was "perplexed" by the TTC's plan to buy 204 new Bombardier streetcars without having the $1.22 billion in the bank to "write the cheque."I do have a concern as a Torontonian," he said. "I just think in these times, with the kind of precarious circumstances that are there and the uncertainty that many people are experiencing, I'm not sure that's the best approach."
The City of Toronto and Mayor David Miller have identified too many priorities for provincial and federal stimulus money, and that it is impossible for Queen's Park to meet all of Toronto's demands, Smitherman said."He (Miller) has previously spoken to me about Union Station as his priority, and about the Sheppard (Transit City LRT) line as his priority," Smitherman said. "Well, my daddy taught me if you have a hundred priorities, you don't have any."Both the provincial and federal governments are accepting municipal stimulus project funding requests until May 1.
"We just have to be honest and say to taxpayers we really can't pretend to be able to support every priority," Smitherman added, noting there will inevitably be more requests for stimulus money than there are resources, so "tough choices" will have to be made.
But Miller said the senior levels of government have to come up with the money because the $1.22-billion Bombardier deal will create Canadian jobs."To me, if you want to stimulate the economy at a time when manufacturing industries are in decline, this is precisely the right way to use that public money to create what will become a whole new manufacturing industry," he said.
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