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Premier Dalton McGuinty, left, and mayor Rob Ford meet at Queen's Park in Toronto, Ont. Dec. 7, 2010.Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail

Ontario's penny-pinching budget may satisfy Rob Ford's respect-for-taxpayers mantra, but does it respect Toronto?

Of a handful of Toronto-specific announcements in the budget, the biggest of all is a cut: canceling construction on the $181-million Toronto West Courthouse slated for the old Westwood Theatre lands in Rob Ford's backyard of Etobicoke. Conceived as way of easing the massive backlog in Ontario's justice system, construction tenders were set to go out later this year.

"We have put in place a number of other programs that help speed up the judicial process," explained Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath, meanwhile, called out the cancellation "extremely problematic."

Elsewhere in the 300-page budget, Ontario's largest city garnered scant attention. The province will close portions of the West Toronto Detention Centre to save cash, work to ensure a new securities regulator is based in Toronto, put $10-million towards the previously announced Global Risk Institute in Financial Services and spend $13-million on the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy and its provincial counterpart to combat guns and gangs.

The budget is just as significant for what it doesn't provide the city. Earlier this year, Mr. Ford met with Premier Dalton McGuinty to ask for $153-million, a huge boost in funding for the Toronto Transit Commission. Mr. McGuinty publicly balked at the request, prompting the mayor to threaten he would rally his legion of supporters - whom he termed "Ford nation" - to unseat Liberal MPPs if the province refused his demands.

Through his finance minister, the premier showed he isn't flinching.

"We're not going to agree on everything," said Mr. Duncan of the Toronto mayor. "I look forward to working with Mayor Ford...I have a great deal of respect for him, for his administration."

Mr. Ford's specific demands included nearly $50-billion for roads, $89-billion for transit and $11.5-million for child-care. It appears the mayor has been rebuffed on all fronts.

But provincial finance officials at the budget lock-up were quick to point out that, while the document offers little new money for the city, billions of previously announced provincial dollars are already flowing into city coffers.

That includes ongoing upload of social assistance costs from property taxes to the province (a program worth $399-million a year by 2018), $133.4-million for the phase-out of GTA pooling, $160.8-million from the gas tax and $300-million to automate the Yonge subway line.

Overall, provincial transit funding is increasing from $1.75-billion last year to $2.48 billion the coming fiscal year, much of the increase destined for the GTA in the form of new streetcars, the renovation Union Station, upgrades to GO Transit corridors and Air Link construction.

Finance officials also reiterated that $8.15-billion remains set aside for TTC expansion should the city decide exactly when it needs the provincial cash originally intended for Transit City, the city transit plan Mr. Ford scrapped upon taking office.

The city had a far worse deal under previous governments, Mr. Duncan said.

"We've increased our transfers to Toronto by 500 per cent [since 2003]" he said. "I'm very proud of our record."

The city's budget chief, Mike Del Grande, took a positive line on the budget, hinting that a richer windfall could arrive in autumn.

"The number one thing to take away is that there was no transit cut," said Mr. Del Grande. "And keep in mind that there's lots of time until the Oct. 6 election for other announcements."

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