Receive and ye shall ask: Toronto got a half-a-billion-dollar gift from the feds, but wants — and needs — more

But even as she extended that credit where it was due for almost half-a-billion in largesse, you could sense an unsaid "but …" She wants, and has long said the city needs, more from Trudeau's team. Lots more.

As she repeated to me this week, and as members of city council outlined in a press conference just 24 hours earlier, the city is still hoping for as much as $250 million to shelter refugees. And per her recent deal with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the city is still looking for the federal government to kick in more than $700 million toward purchasing new subway cars for the Bloor-Danforth Line 2. The day's festive spirit of gratitude aside, we all know the "more please" is coming. 

Before we get to that, perhaps we can take a moment to reflect on today's announcement. The money — much needed as a new report estimates only about a quarter of residents nationwide can afford a single-family home — comes from something called the "housing accelerator fund" and heaven knows we need acceleration in this city.

Mark Richardson of the advocacy group #HousingNowTO was recently pointing out that a project for just 80 units that city council recently decided to buy back from a non-profit has been sitting in the pipeline since 2016 when it was first proposed — that's six years without a single shovel yet in the ground. Toronto's housing plan, approved under newly elected Chow, calls for building more than 50,000 units in the next few years. To succeed, the city desperately needs to move faster than they have been under what Housing Minister Sean Fraser said at the press conference was "literally the country's largest city with the slowest permitting process anywhere in Canada."

Fraser said these dollars came with expected changes to speed up the pace of approvals, and Chow had been making moves in that direction (as her predecessor had, too) already. Let us all hope that with these dollars now in place, we'll find a way to spend them promptly.

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Breaking News Headlines & Top Stories | The Star

• Dec 31, 1969

Breaking News Headlines & Top Stories | The Star

• Dec 31, 1969

For Chow, this announcement just before Christmas caps off a bit of a festive season for her, relatively speaking. She got to announce a new deal worth billions of dollars over the next few years with Premier Doug Ford late last month. Now half a billion from the feds. Some comfort and joy to celebrate for the holidays. 

But even with the injections of cash, the city likely faces an operating budget shortfall that Chow estimated to me this week would be "$300 million to $400 million." There's that big bill for sheltering refugees. There's the needed money for new trains. 

Chow did not bring this up at the federal announcement, but some members of the press in attendance did — and if there's reason for municipal optimism, it is that the gang from Ottawa did not pooh-pooh it away. The prime minister said he was aware of the needs of refugees and "we're going to continue to be helpful." Speaking of transit, he said he and Chow had fought together from the opposition benches for federal transit funding, and that "the federal government will continue to be there as a partner with the city of Toronto."

No promises, exactly. But no rejection of the premise, either. "I look forward very much to sitting down today with Mayor Chow to talk about these issues," the prime minister said. But perhaps it was possible to detect just the slightest hint of exasperation in his own voice, after he came to hand over a giant cheque and was immediately asked when the next, even bigger one might arrive. "The reality is we have been there," he said. "We knew that the federal government needed to step up, and that's what we did. With historic investments in public transit and now with historic investments in housing including," he said, adding particular emphasis in his voice, "the $471 million announcement we're making today. We're going to continue to be there." 

You expect that in their meeting at city hall later in the day behind closed doors, the mayor suggested a list of ways his government could continue to be there. 

Admittedly, it's a bit of a fine how-do-you-do situation: the city's current approach to funding from other governments is less "what have you done for me lately?" than "is that all there is?"

But that is the reality at city hall right now, where what city council is going to do next, almost as certainly as the sun will rise, is engage in a hard discussion about what services should be cut, or just how high taxes should be raised. Lately it has seemed to be raining money, but it comes after years of drought, and the reservoirs are still dry.

And so that's where we are after what Trudeau said would be his last funding announcement of the year, and his biggest in a while. Raising a glass of holiday cheer at the prospect of cash for housing. Making new year's resolutions to get the housing that will buy built faster. And bracing ourselves for the dark days of January, when after the gifts have been opened and the toasts have been made and the glasses drained, you wake up to the groggy realization there are still punishing bills that need to be paid.