PM Announces Federal Support for Toronto's Sheppard Avenue LRT Line

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY


Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Greetings to Premier McGuinty. We’re seeing so much of each other these days people are beginning to talk – about the outstanding level of cooperation between Ottawa and Queen’s Park in responding to the challenges of the global recession.

Greetings as well to Mayor Miller, and to my long-time friend and now-esteemed colleague, Paul Calandra, the Member of Parliament for Oak Ridges-Markham.

And, finally, greetings to our host, Gary Webster, Chief General Manager of the Toronto Transit Commission.

Thank you all for joining us for today’s important announcement.

When I was growing up around Bayview and Eglinton in the 1960s, Scarborough seemed far away – certainly too far for a ten-year-old without a bicycle. But as this great city has grown, the public transit system has grown
and brought all the communities of the GTA closer together.

Today’s announcement is about further expanding the system, and bringing the city even closer yet.

Toronto already has an impressive subway, trolley, bus and commuter train network, and now it’s expanding to include light rail transit.

Today I am pleased to announce that our Government is partnering
with the Government of Ontario to fund construction of the city’s first LRT corridor. In keeping with our commitment to accelerate infrastructure development and renewal under Canada’s Economic Action Plan, construction will begin on the Sheppard Avenue LRT line this July.

This billion-dollar project will create thousands of jobs for construction workers, engineers and countless suppliers and sub-contractors. Indeed, the state-of-the-art light rail cars that will eventually roll up and down the Sheppard line will be built by Canadian workers at Bombardier.

In other words, this project will provide exactly the kind of short-term economic stimulus Canada needs to mitigate the impact of the global recession. And in the long-term, it will help ensure that Toronto’s public transit system is second-to-none in the world, a modern, efficient system
designed to keep Toronto moving, working and growing.

We’re building the future of the city here today, ladies and gentlemen, a future with fewer vehicles on the roads spewing pollution, a future where commuters can get anywhere in the GTA quickly and comfortably.

I will leave it to Premier McGuinty to give you more details, but let me just emphasize once again that today's announcement is part of our government's Economic Action Plan to guide Canada through the global recession.

Across the country, we are accelerating projects to generate economic activity in the construction season that is now arriving. This afternoon, in fact, Premier McGuinty and I will travel to Kenora, where we will be announcing another major infrastructure construction project, involving improvements to the Trans-Canada Highway. 

Ever since economic storm clouds began appearing nearly two years ago,
we have undertaken a series of actions. As a result, Canada was one of the last industrialized countries to enter recession, we are among the least affected by it, and when it ends, we will emerge from it in one of the strongest positions.

As the world struggles with the effects of global recession, we as Canadians are looking ahead. We are using our strong fiscal position to aggressively fund initiatives in communities across the country, initiatives that will generate economic growth for many years to come.

By investing in key infrastructure initiatives like the Sheppard LRT line and the Trans-Canada Highway, we are seizing opportunities that will get us through these tough times and ensure that our country emerges
stronger than ever.

Thank you very much.

All News

---

Related Items