Atop a long list of questions about Premier Doug Ford’s GTA transit plan is who will pay the estimated $28.5 billion cost.

The answer, according to the several governments involved, is that it’s complicated and, at the moment, nobody really knows.

Background documents released by the Ford government say Ontario wants to pay $11.2 billion. Up to 40 per cent, or about $11.4 billion, would hopefully come from the federal government.

The province wants the remainder, between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, to come from municipalities, noting it expects Toronto and York Region to make “significant contributions” to the projects.

Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters Wednesday it’s premature to talk about how many billions his residents should pay toward a transit plan, which includes a new expanded relief line, dubbed the Ontario Line, and three-stop Scarborough subway extension, in which the city has had little input.

“All those numbers are no better than speculation,” and subject to negotiations between the different governments, he said, refusing to speculate on “back of the envelope mathematics” for a plan which he welcomed with “cautious optimism.”

He said York Region will benefit from the proposed Yonge St. subway extension to Richmond Hill, and Mississauga from the planned Eglinton West light-rail extension to Pearson airport, adding Toronto should not pay costs related to those lines.

It is time, Tory added, to revisit the idea of other municipalities helping to shoulder operating costs for the subway, if more 905-belt residents are going to be using a system subsidized by Torontonians to the tune of roughly $700 million per year.

Whatever Toronto’s contribution ends up being, the city’s funding commitments for the old plan will figure into the new commitment. City staff say those pledges total $1.795 billion — $910 million for the Scarborough extension and $885 million for the SmartTrack commuter rail line.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, elated by Ford’s transit blueprint, said he is open to the funding question but noted Toronto didn’t build its existing subway lines without funding help from senior governments, and his region can’t raise its contribution from property taxes alone.

“Once we know the level of commitment we’ll have to make, then there’ll have to be a discussion about what opportunities the province will give us, tools to be able to contribute,” Scarpitti said.

He noted the province let York Region impose a special surcharge on development fees to help pay its $600 million share of the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said of the proposed Eglinton West LRT extension: “Almost all of the entire project is in Toronto.

“Mississauga is supportive of the project, but we would need to have more information about the route and the overall benefits case before we would consider funding,” she said.

In Ottawa, the federal government was puzzled by Ford’s plan.

François-Philippe Champagne, the Liberal infrastructure minister, said the “ambitious blueprint raised questions including when construction could begin and how much federal funding is required.

“The devil is in the details,” Champagne said Wednesday outside the House of Commons.

“We need to understand what’s going to be the funding, we need to make sure it’s fair and equitable to all Ontarians, and we will be asking these questions obviously as things unfold this week.”

When asked if Ottawa will contribute more to transit in Ontario, Champagne pointed to an existing funding agreement with Queen’s Park worth $11.8 billion over 10 years, for the whole province. Under that deal, inked in March 2018, the federal government has already committed $4.9 billion to transit projects in Toronto.

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Liberal MP Adam Vaughan, a former Toronto city councillor who represents the downtown riding of Spadina—Fort York, slammed the Ford government for delaying infrastructure spending that Ottawa has made available.

He compared the new plan to “what high school students who watch the Simpsons come up with” and questioned how the Ontario Line will cross under GO Train tracks along the western waterfront.

“These are just lines on a map. It curves and dips and doodles. I mean, does he even know the geography of the place?” Vaughan said. “He’s created a bottleneck of impossibilities that the price for which is beyond calculation.”

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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