According to the National Post’s Allison Hanes, the money for the Sheppard LRT is not, in fact, part of the federal government’s stimulus program and is instead from the Build Canada Fund, which has been maligned frequently by municipal politicians for its endless red tape.

Spacing has also learned that the TTC will receive the money it has already spent preparing for the beginning of the Sheppard line construction from the provincial government through Metrolinx. Although Spacing has been given the impression that there is not a significant amount of money allocated to Sheppard in the TTC/City of Toronto capital budgets, we are still trying to confirm whether money had been planned for Sheppard in the 2010-2014 five-year capital plan. This post will be updated if/when that information is available to us.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty this morning announced that the Sheppard LRT line would be funded through the provincial and federal economic stimulus programs.

The $950 million for the Sheppard line of Transit City will be two-thirds provincial money and one-third federal money. That money includes the funds required to pay for the streetcars expected to run on the new line.

The City of Toronto’s request for provincial and federal money continues to be considered by officials at both levels of government, however, no announcement was made on that front this morning.

Mayor David Miller announced on his Twitter feed that he and Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be at the Hillcrest TTC compound at 11AM for a good news announcement. While Mayor Miller didn’t say which project would be funded, Spacing has learned that the project is likely Transit City’s Sheppard line.

Although streetcar funding is a key priority for the TTC and was presented to both the provincial and federal governments in the hope of receiving stimulus funding, it is most likely that the TTC will receive Transit City funding for the Sheppard Line. It has been expected that the Sheppard LRT would have its contracts tendered during summer 2009, however, the April 1 announcement of provincial funding for Transit City excluded the Sheppard Line. This would explain why.

While the smart money is on a Sheppard LRT announcement, it is possible that a streetcar announcement will also be made given that the TTC’s deadline to order streetcars is fast approaching.


http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/05/15/breaking-news-sheppard-lrt-likely-to-be-funded-tomorrow-maybe-streetcars/