Ontario to spend $27.5 billion on roads, schools
Canadian Press
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/535362
Ontario will spend $27.5 billion on roads, schools, hospitals and public transit over the next two years in effort to create 300,000 new jobs, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday.
McGuinty said the huge infrastructure investment - which will be detailed in Thursday's provincial budget - will be topped up with another $5 billion from the federal government.
"We've been asked globally to find a way collectively to respond to this worldwide recession," McGuinty said as he announced the funding at a Toronto hospital.
"We're doing our part here in Ontario to stimulate the economy: $32.5 billion is the single largest two-year investment in infrastructure ever."
Transportation projects will get the biggest chunk of the infrastructure money at $9 billion, followed by health care at $7 billion and education at $4 billion.
The investment is expected to translate into 146,000 jobs in the first year and 168,000 in the second.
The federal Conservative government came under fire for inadequate oversight as it tried to get infrastructure spending out the door quickly to stimulate the economy, something McGuinty vowed won't happen in Ontario.
"It's a lot of money and we want to get it out the door in short order," he said.
"Obviously we're going to be as rigorous as we possibly can be to ensure that taxpayers are being served well, the money's being used wisely, and it's creating the jobs we want to have created."
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has already indicated that this week's budget will include a deficit of about $18 billion over two years.