OpenFile asked three Toronto candidates running in the May 2 federal election campaign for their positions on municipal infrastructure issues. Conservative candidate Taylor Train (Parkdale–High Park) talked mainly about Toronto’s priorities. Liberal incumbent Maria Minna (Beaches–East York) spoke at length about the previous Liberal government’s municipal initiatives. NDP candidate Andrew Cash (Davenport) noted that his party’s platform calls for a $400-million national transit strategy. Taylor Train, Conservative candidate, Parkdale–High Park: “I’m a progressive urban conservative. I’ve lived in cities all my life and I know how important infrastructure is to cities. Without having the proper infrastructure, a city cannot have the economic foundation that it needs to have to grow jobs to build itself. Toronto is going to be one of the largest financial capitals on the Planet Earth. “And I think infrastructure is one of the most important things we can do for our cities and especially Toronto, because Toronto is the economic driver in a lot of ways of this country. “As a member of Parliament for this riding, I will be a voice in Parliament, in government, not in opposition. . . .  But I will make sure the voice of Toronto is heard, in no uncertain terms. “Where that money will come from, when it will come … is something I will have to deal with when I am the member of Parliament.” Train criticized the long delays in fixing streetcar and sewer lines on Roncesvalles Ave. in Toronto’s west end. Roncesvalles has “been ripped up for three years. It is destroying the community. The first thing that people talk to me about is not the taxes. It’s about  how the municipality has bungled it. So, if I’m a member of Parliament, and part of the money we give to the municipality . . .  is going to be applied to work projects for infrastructure, I’m going to keep my eye on it.  Andrew Cash, New Democratic Party candidate, Davenport: “Too often in my view, federal parties, federal MPs hide behind jurisdictional boundaries . . . as a way of ducking their responsibilities to give leadership in Canada and set the tone for how we build our cities and continue to build a great country. “You only have to look at infrastructure issues in Toronto and the fiscal implausibility of the municipal budget to know that the federal government has got to get in the game in a meaningful way in cities.” Cash noted that his party’s platform includes a national public transit plan worth $400 million per year. The NDP platform has drawn praise from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which said it was “the first in this election campaign to call for new, long-term investments in Canada’s cities and communities.” Cash added: “In our city, Toronto, there’s a huge backlog in infrastructure improvements. Providing operational funding for public transit, well, that might not be sexy, but that’s the sort of thing cities need and the stuff that people are looking for.” Maria Minna, Liberal incumbent, Beaches–East York: “We [the previous Liberal government] had established a cities agenda. We transferred $2 billion of the gas tax money”—a federal tax continued by the Tories that funnels about  $2 billion to municipalities—“and forgave all the GST so municipalities would not have to pay that. So we accepted that they needed additional funding in addition to what they collected from property taxes.” Minna said the Liberals established a municipal infrastructure fund that was intended to be long-term, but the Conservatives cut $7.5 billion from that fund when they came to power in 2006.
“A Liberal government would go back to our agenda of . . . bringing cities to the table. We would focus on infrastructure priorities in . . . key areas: improving highways and major roads, local and regional rapid transit, municipal infrastructure particularly for water and sewers, and high-speed rail. “We would invest in affordable housing. “We were way ahead until [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper dismantled most of what we put in place.”