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Swarley said:
I don't think government funding is ever actually for sure until the money's been spent.
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So true....even after the senior levels of government commit to something, and the city agrees to it, and they all meet the press/public with their big "charity cheques" showing the fully funded nature of the project......it can be stopped for a myriad of reasons and they never tell us what happened to the money that the charity cheques respresented.

http://www.toronto.ca/waterfront/front_extension.htm
 
TOareaFan said:
... they never tell us what happened to the money that the charity cheques respresented.
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I'm pretty sure that Federal and Ontario Provincial governments both have a law which states money that was allocated and unspent (i.e. sitting in a trust account) goes straight against the debt.

A large portion of the Canadian Government Debt is actually owed to other departments within the Canadian Government who bought their debt and get a decent return. I would assume any federal money in trust is holding paper equivalent to Canadian Savings Bonds. Closing the trust and returning the funds is done by simply ripping up the paper.
 
rbt said:
I'm pretty sure that Federal and Ontario Provincial governments both have a law which states money that was allocated and unspent (i.e. sitting in a trust account) goes straight against the debt.

A large portion of the Canadian Government Debt is actually owed to other departments within the Canadian Government who bought their debt and get a decent return. I would assume any federal money in trust is holding paper equivalent to Canadian Savings Bonds. Closing the trust and returning the funds is done by simply ripping up the paper.
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Thanks....interesting but my point on the Front Street thing is that most Canadians never see that but we all saw the press conference announcing the investment in our community.

The main issue though is the funding can be retracted at any time...it just takes a reprioritizing (read that as "the polls say we should spend the money elsewhere") and, bamb, a previously funded project is cancelled, the sign at the roadside is covered in grafiti then torn down.

I know that a lot (most?) of the posters here were opposed to the FSE (for the record, I was a big fan of it and stil think it would be a great community asset) and are probably happy that it was canned.....but if it can happen to a project you personally oppose....it can happen to one that you favour just as easily.
 
Something tells me Chretien money isn't automatically available for construction on this line. Unless the money was transferred to GO's coffers it probably isn't around anymore. There certainly wasn't any construction contracts tendered, bidded, and signed because the extent of the work wasn't known until the end of the EA process.
 
There has been no announcement from the Tories that they would cancel the Chretien funding. There were two major funding announcements regarding rail around then, and when Martin came in, he did announce he was cancelling the other one, related to Toronto/Montreal upgrades, but not this one. And Harper has in the meantime restored the funding that Martin cancelled.

I'd assume that had this funding been cancelled, which accompanied the original Blue 22 announcement, then Metrolinx would have felt they had no duty to have anything to do with that proposal; and they seem to have taken it quite seriously.
 
rbt said:
I'm pretty sure that Federal and Ontario Provincial governments both have a law which states money that was allocated and unspent (i.e. sitting in a trust account) goes straight against the debt.

A large portion of the Canadian Government Debt is actually owed to other departments within the Canadian Government who bought their debt and get a decent return. I would assume any federal money in trust is holding paper equivalent to Canadian Savings Bonds. Closing the trust and returning the funds is done by simply ripping up the paper.
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Well, it doesn't really work like that. It all depends if the treasury board allocated money, approved future expenditures, or just approved a roadmap.

Usually a new government will honour past government's commitments as a point of courtesy, to both the previous government and to voters who assume things that are announce are funded.

Since federal money is not transfered until a project is complete (unless a specific other arrangement is made like Canada Line, or if it is funded from the gas tax transfer which is not project specific), and it is not held in a trust account or anything, in can be cancelled up to the moment it is transfered. Of course this never happens. But it isn't like the money is sitting in an account other than general revenues gathering interest.
 
nfitz said:
I'd assume that had this funding been cancelled, which accompanied the original Blue 22 announcement, then Metrolinx would have felt they had no duty to have anything to do with that proposal; and they seem to have taken it quite seriously.
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More to the point, we would have heard of the termination of the SNC contract.
 
Darwinkgo said:
Usually a new government will honour past government's commitments as a point of courtesy, to both the previous government and to voters who assume things that are announce are funded.
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Except if you are buying military helicopters or rebuilding the country's busiest airport ;)
 
TOareaFan said:
Except if you are buying military helicopters or rebuilding the country's busiest airport ;)
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Usually is different than always. As mentioned above, Martin killed Chretien stuff, but specifically Harper pledged to follow through with Martin infrastructure stuff.

Airports and the military are also solely federal jurisdiction, so your not fleecing another level of government when you pull out funding or change plans on the fly, like Harris did with the Metro subways.
 
Clean Train Student Coalition - GO Electric

We need Green trains!!!

Go Electric. :)

They are planning to put Diesel trains from Union station to the Airport. Have they lost their minds. If they did that in Europe, our planet would have blown up by now :mad:

Our Transit!
Our Air!
Our Future!

Join facebook: Clean Train Student Coalition

Say "No" to Dirty Diesel and "Yes" to a Clean Future!!!
 
Electric Youth Rally

There will be an Electric Youth Rally on Friday December 4th, 2009

10 am - 2 pm at Yonge-Dundas Square featuring a live performance by "Two Foot Falls" and more.
 
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