For Immediate Release
April 2, 2009

WHY WON’T LIBERAL MPPs STAND UP FOR LOCAL TRANSIT?
McGuinty makes $9 billion Toronto announcement
– what’s in it for small-town Ontario?

(Queen’s Park) – Ontario Progressive Conservative MPPs today demanded to know where the transit money for small-town and rural Ontario is after the McGuinty Liberals yesterday made a $9 billion transit announcement that included only Toronto.

“Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal MPPs are trying to pull a fast one on the people of small-town and rural Ontario,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “Just like all Ontarians, they pay their taxes. It’s discouraging when billions of taxpayer dollars are dumped into the Toronto transit system without a mention of funding for other Ontario municipalities.”

“This is classic Dalton McGuinty – making a re-announcement of a re-announcement just to get headlines,” said PC Transportation Critic John O’Toole (Durham). “We’ve seen this before. Unfortunately for Ontario taxpayers though, MoveOntario 2020 isn’t going anywhere fast.”

O’Toole said that the McGuinty Liberals have made this transit funding announcement four separate times: first in June 2006, again during the 2007 election, during a re-announcement again in 2007 and finally another time yesterday.

Barrett and O’Toole both questioned Liberal Transportation Minister Jim Bradley in the Legislature about the reannouncement. Bradley tried to answer Barrett’s question by deferring to municipalities’ portion of the gas tax.

“My riding, which includes Haldimand and Norfolk counties, didn’t receive a penny of gas tax money, contrary to what the Minister seems to believe,” said Barrett. “The truth is that Toronto is being granted stand-alone transit announcements that are not being offered to small town municipalities.

“The McGuinty Liberals are constantly up-in-arms about ‘fairness’, demanding it from other governments – but they don’t practice what they preach. How is this fair to small town Ontario?” asked Barrett.

“The Transportation Minister didn’t have the answers we are looking for. He makes a multi-billion dollar re-announcement yesterday, but can’t tell us where all of that money is going to come from,” said O’Toole. “The Liberals have been playing with Ontarians’ money for a long time, with little in the way of results. Ontarians are tired of the McGuinty Liberals being all talk and no action.”

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For more information:
Holly Bacchus
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