Ottawa set to approve Toronto island tunnel cash
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=1925808
A request for millions in federal stimulus funds to build a pedestrian tunnel to Toronto Island airport will "meet a favourable response," federal officials have told Global News.
The contentious project, which sources describe as a compromise that is supported by the majority of Torontonians, would get underway by 2011.
Opponents are attempting to frame the debate as a class issue, claiming it would be wrong to divert federal stimulus funds to a "private business" that serves a "privileged few."
But federal sources counter by saying the Toronto Port Authority, which owns and operates the island airport, is in public hands.
The CEO of the port authority sent a request last week to the federal government for $19-million from the stimulus fund to help finance the tunnel under the lake to the airport, which is served by ferry.
The federal cash would represent half the cost, with the port authority putting in $7-million and the final $12-million coming from the provincial government.
Mayor David Miller, whose first election campaign in 2003 was largely defined by his opposition to an island airport bridge, decried the port authority's bid for funds in a statement yesterday. The city has applied for more than $500-million in federal stimulus dollars for repairs to the city's sewage system, the Gardiner Expressway and other projects.
"The Mayor ... believes that the proposed $38-million in public funds should be used to benefit the broader general public and not just one private business," Miller spokesman Stuart Green said in an email. "The City of Toronto is focused on revitalizing the waterfront and a commercial airport is not compatible with that revitalization."
Ken Lundy, director for the Toronto City Centre Airport, said the tunnel project is an excellent way to spend stimulus cash, because it will create construction jobs immediately. After an environmental assessment has been completed, he said, construction should begin in January and completed by March 2011.
The tunnel would serve employees at the Ministry of Health's medical evacuation facilities, he said, and provide an opportunity for the city to begin its project to connect homes on Toronto Island to city water lines "at a much reduced cost."
Mr. Lundy said he hasn't heard back from the federal government, but is hopeful about Queen's Park authorizing the financing.
"At the meetings I attended, [the provincial authorities] saw great benefits to the local economy. The meetings were very positive," he said.
NDP MP Olivia Chow, whose federal Trinity-Spadina riding includes the island airport, released a statement yesterday calling on Ottawa to invest in repairing Toronto's "aged infrastructure" instead of "funding a tunnel for a privileged few." In an interview, Ms. Chow said an unelected body such as the TPA should not compete with city hall for stimulus funds, diverting money away from projects that elected members of the city council have approved.
By subsidizing Porter Airlines, the popular airline that has been flying out of the airport since 2006, the government is taking business away from Air Canada, which flies out of Pearson International Airport, and thus limiting the airline's ability to service smaller Canadian communities, she said.
Mr. Lundy pointed to a July poll of 500 City of Toronto residents conducted by the research firm Pollara Strategic Insights for the TPA, which showed that 62% of respondents supported the construction of an airport island tunnel.
Ms. Chow counters the respondents weren't asked if they were willing to use public funds to construct the tunnel. Nor did the poll ask whether respondents would rather see this money go to the tunnel, to fix the Gardiner Expressway or repair the city's sewage system, she said.
