Billions of dollars promised by the federal Conservative government for infrastructure may not be given to Toronto in the best possible way, Mayor David Miller says.
The federal budget is putting money into the Building Canada Fund, which requires municipalities to ask for money, Miller says, but that doesn't help cities which have their own infrastructure plans.
"Almost none of that fund has been used to actually create infrastructure in this country because of the significant red tape and approvals involved in the process," says Miller.
The mayor says he recently spoke with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Transport Minister John Baird and told them Toronto does not support the infrastructure funding system put forward in today's budget.
Toronto budget chief Shelley Carroll says the federal program won't help to immediately create jobs in the city.
"If they're saying 'No, now stop and reapply (for funding),' we're not going to see Canadians, and certainly not Torontonians, working tomorrow, and that is what we really need," she says.
The federal budget also doesn't focus on new infrastructure projects for the city - like transit and sewers - but instead funds repair projects, she says.
"We wanted a list of new projects to create new stimulus and spin-off stimulus once built...so that we're flowing jobs, and the (economic) spinoff into the next few years."
Building new infrastructure will help create jobs to sustain the city during tough economic times, says the president of the Toronto Board of Trade, Carol Wilding.
"I don't think this is going to have the job-creation effect we were looking for in the short term," she says.
Wilding predicts the flow of cash will be slow, and Miller says he will work to get the federal government to change its mind on directing money through the Building Canada Fund.
Carroll says she is also concerned about the lack of Employment Insurance reform that would have made more Torontonians eligible for EI.
The federal government today said it will be extending eligibility by five weeks from 45 weeks to 50, but that doesn't help more people, she says.
Provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan says that's a problem.
"Many people go unemployed but still don't qualify," he says, adding that the province needs time to assess the federal budget.
