Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the Eglinton Crosstown, the province's largest public transit project, will get $500 million later this month from the government's new green bonds financing program.

Sousa made the announcement at a Crosstown construction site in midtown Toronto, flanked by Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig and Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca.

"This makes us the first government to issue these green bonds," Sousa said Thursday while the congested morning traffic crawled past on Eglinton West. "It will help fund livable and prosperous communities for all Ontarians."

The Liberals announced their intention last October to pursue green bonds as part of the government's push to invest in transit and other green infrastructure. They were included in both that year's Fall Economic Statement and this year's budgets, but this will be the first project to actually see money flow from a green bond issued by a Canadian government.

"The market will dictate the demand, but what it enables us to do is source investors who are looking to invest in green energy and environmentally-sensitive projects," said Sousa.

Green bonds are identical to other forms of government-issued debt (Sousa's office confirmed Thursday their issue will not lower the province's borrowing costs) but come with a certified guarantee that the funds raised in capital markets will be spent on particular environmentally-friendly projects. Sousa said Ontario's green bond issue will be certified by CICERO, a research body established by the Norwegian government.

NDP urban transit critic Cheri DiNovo said today's announcment was designed to conceal the Liberal plans for public-private partnerships in transit infrastructure.

"This government is using this green bonds announcement to greenwash what is in fact the largest privatization of public transit procurement in Canadian history, one that will wastefully send hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into private pockets," DiNovo said.

The green bonds will be issued by the Ontario Financing Authority like all provincial government debt, though the auditor general will in this case be asked to confirm that the money raised by the debt issue was allocated specifically to the Crosstown — or, in the case of future debt issues, whatever green projects the government names.

Sousa said other potential projects for Ontario's green bond issue would include sustainable forestry and agriculture funding, more energy-efficient public sector buildings, and non-nuclear green energy projects.

The total cost of the Eglinton Crosstown, at $5.3 billion, would swallow up several green bond issues of the size announced today, and the Crosstown makes up just part of the province's ongoing transit projects. (The cost of $5.3 billion includes incremental costs that were originally assigned to the Scarborough LRT, before the Liberals backed a subway replacement for the ageing Scarborough RT.)

The Liberals have also pledged $29 billion in transit and infrastructure projects across the province, with $14 billion outside of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

A November 2013 poll found that 43 per cent of Ontarians approved of green bonds in principle, with that support roughly correlating to political party support: Self-identified Liberals were most fond of the idea, with self-identified Tories least approving.

Eglinton Crosstown to be first project funded by green bonds

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