Queen’s Park document leak sets a date on Kathleen Wynne’s transit-funding announcement

The Ontario Liberals suffered another major embarrassment today when the Star published the details of a confidential document, leaked by the Tories, that lays out what appears to be the Wynne government’s complete communications plan leading up to the unveiling of this year’s provincial budget. Governments normally dole out information to the media very selectively and very strategically, and so seeing the Liberal blueprint exposed like this is sort of like watching a magician reach into his hat for a rabbit and come up with his own pants.

The headline item is that the plan appears to call for $5.7 billion in new pre-election spending, which is sure to provide the opposition parties with plenty of rhetorical ammunition leading up to said election. Look below the fold, though, and there’s something of particular interest to transit-riding Torontonians: on April 14, premier Kathleen Wynne is scheduled to give a speech that “includes funding mechanisms for transit.” Presumably this is when she’ll be telling Ontarians how she proposes to pay for new public transit in the GTA without resorting to gas-tax or HST hikes, two options she ruled out last month, against expert advice.

There’s a possibility the Liberals will shuffle the calendar of media appearances a little, now that the press has copies. Regardless, the premier can’t hold off on the announcement for too much longer. (Because the TTC certainly isn’t going to find that money on its own.)