Premier Doug Ford says he is sending his “stormtroopers” to Ottawa to “get the money.”

A group of ministers, mostly focused on economic issues, will join the premier on his trip to Ottawa this week to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Essentially, Ford is turning a scheduled meeting of first ministers into a massive lobbying effort for Ontario.

Ford made the announcement during a fireside chat in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Asked about the expansion of two-way GO Transit train service to the region to help reduce congestion and spur economic growth, Ford said that like many infrastructure projects, there needs to be a federal partner.

“To be very frank, the federal government’s dragging their heels big time on this,” he said.

It’s the sharpest jab I’ve heard from Ford since the federal election when he and Trudeau buried the hatchet after months of Trudeau bashing Ford and the premier not commenting.

So ahead of a meeting of the prime minister and the premiers that will happen on Friday, Ford is taking a team of ministers to meet with their federal counterparts.

It starts Tuesday when Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Infrastructure Minister Laurie Scott head to Ottawa to make the pitch for the federal government to provide 40% of the funding for the expansion of Toronto’s subway system.

The meetings will continue throughout the week as Ford and his team will also ask the feds to approve “all of the outstanding critical infrastructure projects Ontario submitted through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.”

The premier said on Monday that there are 346 planned projects across the province as part of his government’s $144-billion infrastructure plan, but said the Trudeau government has been slow at chipping in its share for the initiatives.

The idea that the feds are slow in funding infrastructure projects is actually a point of fact and not debatable.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been critical of the slow pace of infrastructure money going out the door, as has a Senate committee. Currently, the auditor general is reviewing the state of the federal infrastructure program at the request of MPs.

Also heading to the capital will be Labour and Skills Development Minister Monte McNaughton on Wednesday followed by Health Minister Christine Elliott, Finance Minister Rod Phillips and Treasury Board Secretary Peter Bethlenfalvy.

Each will meet with ministers in the Trudeau government to press Ontario’s case when it comes to funding or federal changes the Ford government thinks would help Ontario.

Elliott will be front and centre to press for more health funding from the feds amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. As a group, Canada’s premiers have been calling for a 5.2% annual increase in health funding from the federal government, instead of the 3% on offer.

With pressure on hospitals and public health units to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, the call for more health funding may find more sympathetic ears in Ottawa than the last time the request was made.

The province will also be asking for more economic immigration for Ontario to fill jobs that are currently sitting empty due to a lack of people. During his chat, Ford hinted that Ontario would like more say over immigration, like Quebec has, so that needs such as filling jobs can be better handled by the province.

Ford said the province recently asked the federal government to increase the number of economic immigrants approved under the Ontario nominee program by 1,000 and the federal government only increased the numbers by 50.

blilley@postmedia.com