Federal finance minister Morneau and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie meet to discuss infrastructure funding
By Roger Belgrave
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau were all smiles after meeting Friday morning to discuss local infrastructure projects the municipality wants Ottawa to support financially.
There were no federal promises made or cheques written, but the press conference held for media cameras and reporters under the skylight of the Mississauga Civic Centre’s Great Hall certainly left the impression these are sunny days in the relationship between Ottawa and Mississauga.
The inaugural budget of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government included $120 billion in infrastructure spending over the next 10 years.
Crombie, a former Liberal MP, had nothing but praise for the historic level of federal government infrastructure commitment and called the plan a “bold” strategy to grow the nation’s prosperity.
She expects Mississauga would be in line to get a sizable share of that money, including a portion of the $1.5 billion coming to Ontario under the new Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.
Prior to delivery of the budget last March, Mississauga made a pre-budget submission to Canada’s finance department.
In that submission, Mississauga encouraged federal backing for the Hurontario LRT, a downtown Mississauga Transitway, all-day two-way GO Train service on the Milton and Kitchener lines and establishing a heavy freight bypass rail line adjacent to Hwy. 407.
The LRT, transitway and all-day GO service have been local priorities for some time now. But the proposed bypass rail line for heavy freight, dubbed the Missing Link, was of particular emphasis during discussions Friday.
“A project of this magnitude also has national and international implications,” Crombie remarked. “This line is critical to Canada’s economy. It is the continental gateway allowing for the movement of large amounts of goods to and from the Central Canadian markets.”
All levels of government should partner together to make a project of this magnitude and economic importance a reality, she added.
Economic success for Mississauga, the nation’s sixth largest city and third largest in Ontario, puts the country in a better position to grow and prosper, Crombie said.
Hearing what initiatives are important to Mississauga is helpful in developing a federal innovation plan, said Morneau, who considers the city an economic engine for the country.
Morneau and Mississauga-Malton MP Navdeep Bains, who is also the Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister, met with Crombie for a discussion that was followed by another 45-minute meeting involving other council members, senior city staff and some local MPs, according to the mayor’s staff.
Crombie thanked Morneau “for making Mississauga a priority” and one of his first post-budget stops.
