Incoming premier Kathleen Wynne aims to improve relations with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at the same time as she braces to “spend political capital” on the potentially explosive issue of road tolls or congestion charges.

In an interview with the Star on Tuesday, Wynne said she and Ford “can get off on a different footing” instead of the often confrontational relations between the mayor and Premier Dalton McGuinty’s administration.

It doesn’t benefit anyone “for the province and the city to be at loggerheads,” she said, the day after she and Ford sat together at a Toronto Board of Trade dinner.

But Wynne signalled she is ready to lead the way when it comes to funding transit to reduce traffic gridlock and boost the economy by helping Greater Toronto and Hamilton residents be more productive.

Asked specifically about fallout from putting tolls on existing roads such as the Gardiner Expressway, she replied firmly: “I’m not saying that … we won’t have to spend political capital to get a revenue stream in place — we absolutely will.

“But if people want to see new infrastructure, if they want to see the transit that we need in the GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) we are going to have to raise the revenue,” said Wynne.

“You’ve got all the city-builders and thinkers saying it. The people in CivicAction, the people at the Toronto Board of Trade — the Toronto Board of Trade has canvassed its members … and those are businesspeople,” she said.

“They recognize that it’s critical for their businesses that this happen so I’m very convinced that this is the moment that we have to step forward.”

Citing the June 2011 board of trade report, Reaching Top Speed, warning gridlock costs the local economy $6 billion annually, Wynne said the situation is urgent.

“The reason I put that out in my leadership campaign was that I wanted everyone to know that I’m going to do that. I’m not going to retreat on that,” she said, noting Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, one of her prominent supporters, has emphasized the need for revenue tools for transit.

“I’m hoping that the mayors and the councils in all of the municipalities in the GTHA will work with us on this. They are ready to go there. Certainly that’s where Hazel McCallion is. It’s not coincidental that she happens to be happy that I am the leader,” said the Don Valley West MPP.

Wynne also made the point that user-pay measures should appeal to right-of-centre voters.

“If that’s not a conservative policy then I don’t know what is.”

Ford, an active Tory, has opposed tolls — or tax increases earmarked for transportation — but the city of Toronto’s public consultations on such levies for transit expansion kick off Monday.

Public feedback will be forwarded to Metrolinx to inform its investment strategy that has to be submitted to the province by June. The Metrolinx regional transportation plan, called The Big Move, needs $2 billion annually for the next 25 years to stem choking traffic congestion.

Transit has been one major reason relations between Ford and McGuinty have been fractious at times — such as the mayor’s charge a year ago that it would be “political suicide” for the premier to disagree with his push to run the Eglinton Ave. LRT fully underground.

On his Newstalk 1010 radio show Sunday, Ford congratulated Wynne on winning the Liberal leadership the night before and said he was looking forward to working with her.

Wynne, a former mediator who negotiated with Ford on the new LRT lines, indicated that she would bring a different tone to the dialogue between Queen’s Park and city hall now that she has the top job at the province.

“Maybe we’re going to be able to engage more frequently. I think that would help,” she said, expressing hope for more “general conversations” instead of the “hot-button” crisis talks that have been hallmarks of the past few years.

“There has to be, in my view, new revenue. The cost associated with this would swallow up every nickel of the capital the government has and then there wouldn’t be enough,” said Duncan, who will soon leave cabinet and join McGuinty in retirement.

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The treasurer noted Vancouver and Montreal have gas taxes to cover off public transit costs, while New York City has nine separate revenue streams that go into its public transit system.

Earlier Tuesday, Wynne, who will not officially be sworn in as Ontario’s 25th premier until next week, attended the first Liberal caucus meeting since succeeding McGuinty as party leader at Saturday’s Maple Leaf Gardens convention.

She also named her transition team, which includes Don Drummond, the economist who wrote last year’s influential report on government streamlining, former finance minister Greg Sorbara, former NDP cabinet minister Frances Lankin, and former Toronto mayor David Crombie.

With Files From Tess Kalinowski

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