Premier Kathleen Wynne is seen during a swearing in ceremony at Queen's Park on Feb. 11, 2013. In her first meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Ms. Wynne pushed for a national transit strategy and for the federal government to take a greater role in infrastructure funding.Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail
Premier Kathleen Wynne used her first meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to push for a national transit strategy and for the federal government to take a greater role in infrastructure funding.
The half-hour sit-down took place last Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Mr. Harper's Langevin Block office on Parliament Hill, but it wasn't made public until Monday.
"Infrastructure is one of the issues that I've said very clearly that I'm going to be raising with the federal government – particularly infrastructure and transit funding. I think that it's extremely important that those two go hand in hand," she said. "It was a very short meeting and it was a very positive meeting and I hope that there will be more to come."
Ms. Wynne was in Ottawa for a round table with business leaders and a photo opportunity with Mayor Jim Watson that involved signing the contract to start digging the city's new light rail line. Ms. Wynne squeezed in her tête-à-tête with the Prime Minister before rushing back to Toronto when word broke that the province's public secondary school teachers had voted to resume extracurricular activities.
The province has an ambitious plan to build new subways and LRTs, and improve service on the GO regional rail network, but little money to pay for it. Ms. Wynne maintains the nation should have a comprehensive plan to build economically vital transit infrastructure.
Adrian Morrow