Toronto Mayor Rob Ford goes fishing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and flies to weekend getaways with family friend Jim Flaherty, the finance minister.

Theoretically, that suggests a degree of influence. But what’s far from clear, as Ottawa prepares to unveil a renewed infrastructure funding program, is whether the mayor ever asks his federal friends for money for his city.

Ford has never publicly called on Ottawa to return some of Torontonians’ income tax dollars to build public transit, fix the crumbling Gardiner Expressway or tackle other projects in the city’s $1.6 billion infrastructure renewal backlog.

He did not respond to an interview request on this subject, but his past comments suggest a philosophical opposition to cities receiving federal cash.

In January, as the lone council member to vote against accepting federal funds for an anti-gang program that would cost the city nothing, the mayor declared: “There is only one taxpayer: provincial, federal, or municipal — it still comes out of your right pocket or your left pocket.”

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday told the Star he doesn’t think Ottawa can afford a national program to help municipalities pay for crumbling roads, bridges and sewers.

“For municipalities to expect the federal government is in a position to bail them out on a regular basis with infrastructure money, I think that’s a bit of a stretch,” he said.

Last summer, the Harper government specifically invited Ford to apply for a small program open until Aug. 31 which offered $50 million to Ontario municipalities for parks and recreation projects. Ford submitted a letter a week before the deadline, asking for $16 million.

Unlike Hamilton, Burlington, Orangeville, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and many other municipalities, Toronto got nothing.

Based on population, the city would qualify for about $10 million.

Councillor Mike Layton, a frequent Ford critic, was perplexed by the snub.

“There were some teeny projects there” on Toronto’s wish list, he said. “We could have gotten a couple of dimes here, a couple of dimes there, but nothing. Toronto got zilch form the federal government.”

Flaherty did not respond to an interview request, but his office released a statement saying that, since 2006, the Harper government has “made record investments in improving infrastructure in Canada.”

It cites $1.4 billion invested in Toronto transit projects, including the extension of the University subway line into York Region, and $20 million in “140 road projects” funded through the $33 billion stimulus fund. A request for a detailed breakdown was not answered.

“The mayor has his own approach to dialoguing with the federal government,” said public works chair Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.

“There are public ways to do it and private ways to do it.”

Minnan-Wong said he has met twice in the past year with federal Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel.

“I think we all know that we need more investment, the city needs more investment. But there are different ways you can be effective and different approaches you can take.

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“I know the minister is aware of the needs of the city of Toronto because I’ve expressed these needs to him personally. Minister Flaherty, the political minister for Ontario, who also happens to be the finance minister, is also aware of our needs.”

NDP MP Olivia Chow, whom Ford might face when he runs for re-election in 2014, has been working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to put Ottawa’s feet to the fire for long-term infrastructure funding to municipalities, instead of two-year grants “open to partisan consideration.”

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is a leading voice in FCM’s call for the federal budget to include a 20-year infrastructure funding plan with an immediate annual $2.5-billion-per-year boost, to $5.75 billion — money the FCM says municipalities and provinces should match.

Lastman and Miller were major players in the FCM’s Big City Mayors’ Caucus. They could point to major federal dollars going into waterfront development ($500 million); Union Station renovations ($133 million); and the subway extension ($622 million).

But when the 22-member caucus met last year to publicly highlight their request for a big federal funding increase, Ford was a no-show.

Rather than add its voice to the FCM demands, Toronto issued a news release the next day saying the city was submitting its own recommendations on key elements that should be in the plan, saying they were consistent with those of the FCM.

Councillor Doug Ford argues Ottawa has “done a lot of great work for Toronto” and dismissed Chow’s campaign as “political grandstanding.”

Ford critic Adam Vaughan said the mayor’s involvement is crucial on a big issue like money to expand transit in the city.

“Rob Ford can yell ‘subways, subways, subways’ all he wants, but if he’s not on the train when it goes to Ottawa, he’s not getting any cash,” Vaughan said. “It’s an abysmal failure of leadership.”

“The reason we’re having a subway built right now in Toronto is because of the work that Mel Lastman and David Miller did.”

In late November, Toronto City Council voted 38-3 to get behind FCM’s infrastructure campaign. Voting no were the Fords and Holyday.

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