Tobermory gets a gift, Toronto gets a loan

Pardon us while we look a borrowed horse in the mouth. Days after announcing almost $140 million in spending on roads, bridges and highways for parts of Ontario that aren’t Toronto, the federal government has seen fit to lend the city just a bit more than half that amount:

Diane Finley, minister of human resources and skills development, was scheduled to make an announcement Friday at Toronto city hall outlining details of 11 infrastructure loans, approved as part of Ottawa’s Economic Action Plan… Toronto will get more than $77.9 million in low-cost loans to improve roadways, sidewalks and upgrade bridges, as well as help pay for the Regent Park revitalization project already underway.

If the intent was to soften the blow of Wednesday’s announcements, this looks like a big fail. The rest of Ontario got a big, splashy announcement; we got city hall. The rest of Ontario got McGuinty and Harper, and Toronto got Diane Finley—on a Friday afternoon, no less. If Ottawa wants to do something nice for Toronto, perhaps it shouldn’t look so ashamed while doing it. Is Toronto so politically radioactive that even a loan has to be introduced less conspicuously than a candidate for the witness protection program?

• Toronto to get federal loans for local projects [Toronto Star]