Across Canada, the federal government is cutting infrastructure investments when we should be moving forward. Our cities need help, and for Toronto that means urgent action and federal leadership.
Infrastructure
With concrete falling off Gardiner Expressway, we cannot wait until someone gets hurt. What we need is leadership from the federal government and immediate funding instead of repeated neglect.
Infrastructure across Canada is crumbling. Vital links like the Gardiner Expressway are literally falling apart. Yesterday’s incident in which basketball-sized concrete chunks fell off a major Toronto elevated highway show that cities alone cannot shoulder the burden anymore.
Cities across the country are struggling with aging infrastructure, underfunded transit and insufficient housing. The federal government has to step up support by taking one cent of the existing gas tax and use it as dedicated funding for urban infrastructure projects, NDP Critic Olivia Chow demands in Parliament.
Why does the infrastructure minister continue to tolerate third world conditions in first nations communities? That is the question Olivia Chow, MP for Trinity-Spadina, raised in the House of Commons. Documents released to her show that two-thirds of all First Nation applications for infrastructure funding were rejected since 2006.
Even though the Conservatives deny it, too many Canadians are out of work.
Can the minister tell this House who will own the bridge? Does he even know how much these tolls will cost? Will the government have any say? Or will the new bridge become a cash cow for some private company?
September 21, 2011 Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, whether it is the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto or Montreal’s Champlain Bridge, Canada’s major infrastructure is crumbling, leaving too many Canadians with a white-knuckle drive to work. At the same time, the IMF said today it predicts Canada’s unemployment rate is going to rise above [...]
Olivia’s question in the House of Commons, June 22, 2011 Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, Canada’s bridges are falling down and the minister responsible is falling down on the job. Four times in the last six months the basketball-sized chunks of concrete are falling down from Montreal’s bridges near Champlain and Mercier, [...]
Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP): Mr. Speaker, in the 1990s, the federal deficit was downloaded onto the backs of Canadian communities. Twenty years later, Canadians are stuck in traffic, our bridges are crumbling, our water systems are failing. Friday’s throne speech ignored municipalities and infrastructure completely. Canadians deserve a vision, a national public transit strategy. [...]
Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP) Statment in the House of Commons during Question Period, March 24, 2011: Mr. Speaker, 85-year-old Vera Cudjoe is anxious and worried because she cannot afford her $260 hydro bill. She tried turning off the heat to save money but got desperately sick. Vera was a nurse and the proud director of [...]
More than 140,000 Ontario households are waiting for affordable housing, an increase of almost 10 per cent since last year, says the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association. This shameful record is the legacy of the former Liberal government’s decision to cancel the National Affordable Housing Program in 1995.
New Democrat Leader Jack Layton is calling on Stephen Harper to give hardworking families a break and immediately remove the five percent HST/GST from home heating before the snow falls.
November 25, 2009 Dear Minister Flaherty, I am writing in support of Waterfront Toronto’s central waterfront revitalization initiatives. Waterfront Toronto has applied for stimulus funding to complete the Canada walkway, which includes a granite maple leaf motif and the construction of the Rees and Simcoe bridges. This project should meet with your approval as it [...]
Compromise solution: Message from councillor Joe Pantalone: It is with the greatest pleasure that I am writing to let you know that MetroLinx has listened to the residents, businesses and other organizations that sent hundreds and hundreds of messages and letters regarding the rail grade separation at Strachan Avenue.
