October 3, 2002

Thank you, Eyse, Board Chairman Dale Richmond, Toronto City Councillors, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about friends - and I don't mean the T.V. show.

I'm talking about the kind of friend who remains by your side when the going gets tough. The kind of friend that frankly, this City has in the Toronto Board of Trade - and in you.

I know we've had our differences. There are some issues we agree to disagree on.

But I believe that we see eye to eye on most of the important ones. The Board of Trade has been our ally in the fight for new transit dollars from the provincial and the federal government.

You've been by our side in turning Toronto's waterfront vision into a reality and in calling on the provincial and federal governments for a new deal for cities.

I'd like to say thank you, but we still need your help.

Toronto is a better place because of your efforts, but it could be an even better place still.

There was precious little in Monday's throne speech for Canada's major cities.

There were words about infrastructure and promises of social housing. There was talk of joint federal-provincial initiatives and ten years of funding.

But there wasn't a single dollar figure mentioned in any of it.

Cities are suffering. Businesses are hurting and if our only source of revenue is going to continue being a portion of the property tax base, I don't have to tell you that we are all going to be in trouble. We don't need red book promises anymore; we don't need money with strings attached. For example building subsidized housing or dollars for transit only if the province puts in matching dollars, or visa versa.

Toronto cannot live on grants alone. No more begging; this city needs long-term, sustainable funding - without strings attached.

Cities across Canada need a different relationship with the federal government; one that allows us to talk directly to Ottawa and receive money directly from Ottawa.

Our federal government is the only government in the world that doesn't fund transit. For that matter neither does our province.

Of the money they both promised last year for the TTC, we have not yet received one cent.

How are we going to get it?

My message is simple: don't vote or support any government that doesn't help cities financially.

Now as members of the Toronto Board of Trade, you may have competing political interests.

You may have competing social interests, and some of you may even have competing business interests, but you have three things in common.

You love our country, our province and our city. For the next little while, I'm asking you to be citizens of Toronto first.

I'm sure you've heard me say before that Toronto is the economic engine that drives Canada - and that Toronto is the greatest city in the world.

Both are true - and to quote Marc Morial, the keynote speaker at my Toronto City Summit, "as Toronto goes, so too does Canada go." We all want both to go well.

Forget party politics. Help us secure Toronto's future by electing a provincial and federal government that will ensure Toronto's future.

Let's get together and make it happen. Thank you.