Mayoral candidate John Tory says he’s relying on Ontario and federal governments to come up with billions to help fund his $8 billion SmartTrack transit plan.

Tory said his funding model requires each level of government to come up with a third of the cost.

“I have assumed that one of my jobs as mayor is going to have to be to go and champion this with the other two levels of government,” Tory said in a luncheon speech Thursday to the Rotary Club of East York.

“With respect to the federal government, I’m optimistic that if we have the right kind of relationship with them, if we don’t start the term of office by picking a fight with them on the Scarborough subway, they will be there.”

Without actually naming her, Tory slammed rival candidate Olivia Chow for wanting to scrap the $3.5 billion Scarborough subway in favour of the original plan for an LRT to replace the aging SRT line from Kennedy subway to Scarborough Town Centre.

Ottawa and Queen’s Park have committed funding to build the Scarborough subway project.

“I don’t believe that we’re going to get back on track with a mayor who on her first day in office as her first priority is going to start another long, drawn-out fight with the province and the federal government on the already agreed to and funded Scarborough subway,” he told about 50 people at the Rotary luncheon.

“We have a deal. I do not propose to go to the city hall and say, ‘Let’s start that debate over again just for fun.’ I simply will not start my term as mayor fighting with Premier (Kathleen) Wynne and Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper.”

The centrepiece of Tory’s SmartTrack plan is to run frequent, all-day train service on existing GO Transit lines from Etobicoke through Union Station to Markham.

The newly elected provincial government of Kathleen Wynne is supportive of electrifying the lines to permit train service every 15 minutes, and has set some money aside as part of its $15 billion GTA transit plan, Tory said.

“Part of my job is to ensure that the two lines that make up the SmartTrack are at the top or near the top of the list to get some of that funding to get that electrification done in short order.”

Tory said the city’s share of the cost would not come from property tax increases but from tax increment financing, which captures tax revenue from increased development spurred by new transit lines.

He said his goal would be to cap property tax increases at or below the inflation rate.

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