Smart growth may be the new religion among Toronto region planners.

But Halton chair Gary Carr says he’s not going to church if the province doesn’t step up and fund transit, roads, public health and other infrastructure to serve his region’s growing population.

Halton officials will just say ‘no’ to provincially mandated growth targets if Queen’s Park doesn’t deliver the services — including all-day, two-way GO trains.

The region of about 500,000 residents is supposed to take on an additional 250,000 in the next 20 years.

“There’s wording in our approved plan that says we will proceed only if we get complete communities. That means the funding from the province, not only for things like Metrolinx, but for schools and provincial highways. There’s a clause that says if we don’t get that we don’t need to proceed. That’s all been approved by the province,” said Carr, adding he’s prepared to fight the province in court if necessary.

On Wednesday the regional council is expected to endorse a resolution already adopted by its planning and public works committee. It would send a warning to Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey that there won’t be any more residential development beyond the current round if Metrolinx doesn’t improve transit to the region.

Metrolinx had originally slated all-day service for Halton on the Kitchener and Milton GO lines in the first 15 years of its 25-year Big Move transportation plan. But the plan’s updated version pushes the GO expansion to the list of projects in a 16- to 25-year window.

Besides more GO trains to Milton and Georgetown, Carr said the region wants Metrolinx to reinstate plans for another GO station on Trafalgar Rd. and it wants the Lakeshore West GO line electrified so it can deliver 15-minute express service.

If the province moves ahead with taxes to pay for transit, it means Halton residents will be “sending the equivalent of $150 million per year for 15-plus years before the region sees any transit upgrades from Metrolinx,” said Milton Councillor Colin Best.

He estimates that Milton — the region’s fastest growing community — has about 10,000 more cars than it did four years ago.

Meanwhile, most of the projects on Metrolinx’s near-term plan are in Toronto, said Carr, noting his region is struggling with an $8.7-million shortfall in provincial funding for public health and paramedic services. It is also failing to capture $7 million in development charges because of provincially mandated exemptions.

While there’s no appetite to cut vital services, Carr said, “every time we add a new (housing) unit in the region it costs us.”

GO service and a proposed widening of Highway 401 to reduce congestion are vital if the region is to remain competitive. The availability of GO’s Lakeshore service and the proximity to highways has helped Halton attract major warehouses for Target and Lowe’s, technology giant Siemens and a new Price Waterhouse office, he said.

Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig said he supports the desire for expanded GO service to Milton. But the Milton corridor is a CP Rail mainline.

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“That means we have some significant infrastructure that needs to be built so CP can continue to operate its core service, which is the freight service, and we can increase the level of service from our perspective,” he said.

It also has many level crossings. Adding more GO trains would trigger the need for bridges over some of those crossings, affecting communities such as Streetsville in Mississauga.

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