It would have been nice to see more structure put around the RoF commitments, but then this is politics and wiggle room is needed. The Feds also need to come to the table in some form and there was no way the Federal Conservatives would allow the Provincial Liberals to take credit in their budget for Federal spending. I believe we needed to get this budget out and passed before Prov/Fed negotiations could proceed in ernest.

There will also be the expected feeding frenzy around who gets credit, with both Federal and Provincial politicians wanting to make local announcements in their ridings with photo ops at the inevitable ribbon cutting ceremonies. Budgets are not the vehicle for local announcements.

I don't know what to read into the recent announcemnt of the proposed sale by the Province of the Ontario Northland Railway. The ONR had often been a vehicle for public policy, and not a revenue generator for the Province. Was there mention in the budget of this? The ONR could have been a nice vehicle to eventually build a rail link into the RoF with fiber optics along side. Will this free up ONR to act more freely in a commercial sense and partner with others like we are seeing in Quebec?

Lakeside