Premier Doug Ford reiterated his call for the federal government to commit money to Toronto-area transit plans Tuesday, as he backed off his previous pledge to have the province pay the entire costs of the new lines if Ottawa doesn’t come to the table.

At a news conference at a provincial transportation maintenance garage on Kennedy Road in Scarborough, Ford said the Ontario government had reached a “key milestone” by putting tunnelling work for the Eglinton West LRT and Scarborough Subway extension out for bids last week.

“We’re moving ahead at lightning speed and these projects couldn’t come soon enough. The people of Scarborough have been waiting for decades, I repeat, decades, for a fast, reliable three-stop subway,” Ford said.

Along with the Ontario Line and Yonge North subway extension, the Eglinton West and Scarborough projects make up the $28.5-billion GTA transit expansion proposal Ford released last April.

The premier said that ahead of the First Ministers Meeting in Ottawa on Friday he would lead a delegation of cabinet ministers to the capital in an attempt to secure funding for the four projects. Ford wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to pick up 40 per cent of their total costs.

Despite Trudeau’s Liberals signalling support for parts of Ford’s plan during the 2019 federal election, the Canadian government has yet to formally commit funding for the GTA expansion projects, according to a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney.

“Now it’s time for Ottawa to join us, to fund their fair share, to fund 40 per cent of these subways, because these projects are nationally significant,” Ford said. “What’s good for Ontario is good for Canada.”

When the premier unveiled his transit plans last April he promised his government would pay their full cost if no other government came forward with money. He wouldn’t commit to doing so Tuesday.

“Traditionally, the federal government puts 40 per cent in,” he said when asked about his earlier promise.

Pressed on whether the plans would go ahead without federal funding, Ford would only say “we look forward to sitting down on Friday to discuss these issues with the federal government.”

In a statement responding to Ford’s comments, David Taylor, a spokesperson for Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna, said the Canadian government is “eager to work with the province of Ontario to invest in its public transit priorities.”

Taylor noted the federal government agreed in 2018 to invest $8.3 billion in transit infrastructure across the province over a decade, but he didn’t immediately confirm how much of that funding could go to the Ford government’s priority projects.

Under the terms of a deal with the province that Toronto city council approved in October, the city won’t pay any of the construction costs of the four provincial transit lines.

As part of that agreement council voted to take roughly $3.8 billion in federal funding that had been earmarked for the city’s relief line subway and one-stop Scarborough subway extension and reallocate it to the province’s Ontario Line and three-stop Scarborough project. However, the federal government would need to agree to the move.

Taylor said Infrastructure Canada has not received an official project application from Ontario for any of the four projects in its GTA expansion plan.

“Infrastructure Canada cannot commit funding to any projects without official project applications that it can review,” he said.

But he stressed the federal is “committed to working with the provincial government.”

McKenna met Tuesday with Mulroney and Ontario Infrastructure Minister Laurie Scott in what both sides described as productive talks.

The three-stop, eight-kilometre Scarborough subway extension replaced previous city-approved plans for a one-stop extension and would extend the TTC’s Line 2 to Sheppard Avenue. It’s projected to cost at least $5.5 billion to construct and be open by 2029 or 2030.

The Eglinton West LRT would be a 9.2-km extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT from Mount Dennis to Renforth Drive. Depending on the route selected, it would cost an estimated $3.5 billion to construct the project, which the province says will be open by 2030 or 2031. A future phase would extend further to Pearson airport.

In February, Metrolinx released business cases for the two projects that showed their costs would far outweigh their benefits. Despite scoring poorly in the economic analysis, Metrolinx recommended moving ahead with the extensions.

Asked how he’d convince the federal government the projects were worth funding, Ford rejected the idea they would be a poor return on investment.

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“Tell that to the 650,000 people that have been ignored for decades out in Scarborough,” he said.

Mayor John Tory was on a business mission in London, U.K. Tuesday and didn’t attend the premier’s press conference. But in a statement he said progress on the Scarborough and Eglinton projects “is a step forward in the important work we need to do” to get the two extensions built.

“I will continue to work with the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada to get on with building transit — it is the best way to protect Toronto’s success and to respond to the growth we are seeing as North America’s fastest growing city,” he said.

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