Toronto Mayor John Tory’s provincial budget demands include help with repair bills for the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, as well as money to help build transit and repair Toronto Community Housing units.

Tory outlines what he expects in a letter to provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa, released by his office Tuesday morning ahead of the spring budget, that pointedly refers to Premier Kathleen Wynne’s decision to veto tolls on the city-owned highways after originally agreeing to permit them.

“First and foremost, the city needs the province to become a full partner in cost-sharing of major infrastructure investments going forward,” Tory writes, repeating recent statements that he expects Ontario to match federal funds pledged in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent budget.

“We expect that the province will provide appropriate matching funds for each program, and include the city in any discussions with the federal government regarding how these funds will be allocated.”

Ottawa has pledged nationally, over 11 years, $20 billion for transit and $11.2 billion for housing. Toronto does not yet know its share.

To “maintain Toronto’s economic and social vibrancy,” Tory writes, the city’s most critical infrastructure priorities are:

Building new transit lines including the Eglinton East LRT, waterfront transit and the downtown relief line

Investing in social housing to attack TCH’s $2.7-billion repair backlog after “years of underfunding”

“Recognizing your obligation, given the premier’s recent announcements rejecting our tolling proposal, to help us pay to maintain the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway as key regional transportation corridors.”

Tory urges Sousa to make changes so that Toronto can introduce a previously-announced new tax on hotel rooms and Airbnb-style short-term accommodation.

Toronto’s requests “reflect the needs of nearly three million Ontario residents as well as the well-established public financing principle that social programs and large-scale infrastructure projects . . . should not be funded from the local property tax base alone,” the mayor concluded.

After a mid-March meeting with Sousa, Tory told reporters the provincial-city relationship cannot be “business as usual,” following Wynne’s decision late last year to yank tolls off the table as she faced a revolt within her own caucus and warnings they would cost her 905-area seats in the 2018 provincial election.

Stung, Tory said of her flip-flop that he would leverage Wynne’s decision to force Ontario to help fill the resulting gap of billions of dollars in revenue in coming years.

Tory recently told Sousa that Toronto could not make it a priority to extend the Yonge St. subway line north into York Region, a political priority for Wynne’s Liberals, until the city has pledges for funding to build a new line to relieve overcrowding on that line.

There is no mention of the northward subway push in Tory’s letter.

Wynne took Tory’s letter in stride, noting that the province has promised to double Toronto’s share of the gas tax to an estimated $170 million and pledged $150 million to Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency, for initial planning and study of the relief line.

“I actually don’t see any point of contention here,” Wynne said at a Dixon Rd. convention centre where she spoke to long-term care workers. “I would say to the mayor and the council, we’re going to continue to work in partnership with you.”

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The premier acknowledged Tory would like to see a hotel tax “very soon.”

With files from Rob Ferguson

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