Remarks by the Deputy Prime Minister on investment in public transit in Toronto

September 27, 2024

We are here with Team Scarborough, with three outstanding Scarborough MPs, Gary, John and Jean. I want to say to everyone here in Scarborough, they love this amazing community. And it’s really great to have two great Scarborough city councillors, Jamaal and Parthi, and as I said, wonderful to be here with the mayor. Today’s announcement is really what happens when different levels of government, the city and the federal government, work together for the people who we represent. 

Every single elected person here is elected by people in Toronto to represent them. And I think we’re also glad to be coming together to talk about something that we’re doing together to make life better for people here. 

I want to start by talking just for a minute about some good economic news we’ve been having in Canada in recent weeks. Inflation in August was 2 per cent. That’s a bull’s eye right in the middle of the Bank of Canada’s target range for inflation. 

And in fact, inflation has been within the Bank of Canada’s target range all of this year. We have now had three interest rate cuts. Canada was the first G7 country to cut interest rates for the first time. We were the first G7 country to cut interest rates for the second time. And we were the first G7 country to cut interest rates for the third time. That is real relief for Canadians.

Wages have outpaced inflation for the past 19 months in a row. We have also, over the past two weeks, seen some real progress on mortgages and on housing affordability.

Our government has announced that we will be raising the level for insured mortgages from $1 million to $1.5 million—really relevant in a city like Toronto—and increasing the amortization for first-time homebuyers and for people buying a newly built home to 30 years.

What that means practically is, if you are a first-time homebuyer, if you’re buying a newly built home, you’re going to be able to do that with a lower down payment and you’re going to have lower payments every single month, because we know how important it is that the dream of homeownership needs to remain in reach for people living in this amazing city. 

And then, we had some more good news for people with mortgages. And that is the announcement by OSFI this week that if you already have a mortgage and you are renewing it and it is an uninsured mortgage, you do not have to requalify with a stress test to switch banks upon renewal. 

That’s a really big deal. It is going to give people who see a renewal up ahead and are worried about it some real choice, some real options. If you have an insured mortgage, it is already the case that you don’t need to requalify with a stress test upon renewal. You can look around for the best deal you can get. 

So that’s some really good news for Canadians. It’s really good news for the people of Toronto. 

I am really happy that inflation was 2 per cent in August. For the past eight months in a row, inflation has been within the Bank of Canada’s target range, and the Bank of Canada has already reduced its policy rate three times.

And then we have even more good news that we’re here to highlight: an announcement about the TTC and electric buses. And I really want to start by thanking all of the people at the TTC who have made this possible, who run this incredibly important transit system every single day. It really is the circulatory system of our city. 

And I want to give a special shout-out to an amazing guy I met this morning. His name is Tony, he’s an electrical technician, he’s worked here for 40 years. He’s the guy in charge of these amazing charging stations that we are about to see in operation. And he was so proud to tell me about the work that he and his colleagues have done putting this system in place and making this system work. And he also was proud to tell me about his family. He has three beautiful daughters and five amazing grandchildren. And he does this work so that they can live in an amazing city and to support them and build a wonderful family here. He’s been working here for 40 years. Thank you very much Tony. 

So the good news. Thanks to the hard work of Tony and his friends and colleagues here, and thanks to investments by the City of Toronto and the Government of Canada, we’re making a $700 million joint investment of which the federal government is contributing half, the City of Toronto half, in 340 zero emission buses and the amazing charging system that we see here behind us. The first two vehicles are here today.

We’re going to get on them and show them off and I am really looking forward to it. This is so important. This is about providing great transit for people in Toronto. It means you can get to work, you can get to school, you can get to see your friends and have fun. It means doing it in a way that is clean and green, and I’m really glad that there are some people here from Nova because we’re also supporting great jobs in Canada building these amazing buses.

Today’s investment builds on sustained investment by the federal government in this amazing city, including in public transit. Since 2015, we have invested more than $10 billion, $10.4 billion to be exact, in public transit in Toronto. We are really, really proud to do that, and we’ve invested $30 billion in transit projects across the country. We’re a growing country and we need to be investing so people can get around. 

So it’s such a great pleasure to be here, to congratulate and to thank the amazing people who work here and to celebrate what we’re doing together with the City of Toronto, with my Toronto caucus colleagues, to improve the lives of Canadians, of Torontonians.

Thank you very much.