At an event in Barrie this morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, announced an agreement to provide more than $2.97 billion in combined funding—by the Government of Canada, Province of Ontario and municipalities—for transit and other infrastructure projects across the province.

At a following event at Toronto's St Clair West Station this morning, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, joined Christia Freeland, MP for University-Rosedale, Han Dong, MPP for Trinity-Spadina, City of Toronto Mayor John Tory, and Josh Colle, Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission to announce funding for specific projects in Toronto.

Han Dong, Christia Freeland, Josh Colle, John Tory and Bill Moreau at St Clair West Station, image by Jack Landau

Canada is providing Ontario with $1,486,680,000 under the new Public Transit Infrastructure Fund. This amount covers as much as 50 per cent of the funding for the projects that the agreement supports.

According to the Toronto Star, "Ottawa will pump $500 million into the beleaguered TTC in 2016-17 for dozens of projects, ranging from subway and bus repairs to adding bike parking at 40 stations."

Although the announcement specifies funding for a number of projects in Barrie, Sudbury, Toronto, Ottawa and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, much of the funds are still available for municipalities to use to support other projects. They can nominate projects for funding starting in September. The Federal and Provincial government will allocate the money, using a formula based on the number of local transit riders.

For the TTC, about $360 million will support, among many other projects:

resignaling the Bloor-Danforth Line 2;

overhauling or replacing elevators at subway stations to improve accessibility;

overhauling subway cars;

upgrading subway tracks;

repairing and replacing streetcar tracks;

renewing carhouses and maintenance facilities;

renewing streetcar overhead wiring; and

buying new buses and rebuilding older buses.

With this announcement, other transit projects also receive a financial boost, including about $65 million to support ongoing design, planning, and other early work for several projects including:

the Scarborough Subway;

the Finch West light rail transit project;

SmartTrack;

the Eglinton East and Eglinton West LRT extensions;

the Relief Line; and

Waterfront transit.

Cyclists get good news (and $42 million), too, with funding for:

expanding bike parking at TTC stations;

increasing the number of BikeShare sites at TTC stations;

improving the Eglinton Avenue streetscape, as part of the Eglinton Connects plan;

extending the West Toronto Railpath;

improving the East Don Trail;

building bike lanes on Eglinton Avenue East;

better cycling routes to and from York University; and

building a multi-use trail on Midland Avenue.

Here's a complete list of Toronto projects that are receiving support from this new fund:

In phase one of the program, the Federal government is giving provinces billions for public transit projects, covering half the costs for projects retroactively to April 1. The Province and municipalities supply the rest of the funds that each project requires.

Details of the second phase, starting next year, are still be announced.