Toronto wants residents to demand Ottawa follow through on $235M COVID funding

The City of Toronto has taken the extraordinary step of asking residents to turn up the heat on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government as the cash-strapped municipality presses Ottawa for COVID-19 relief. In the early stages of the pandemic, the federal government teamed up with the province to bail the city out. Tory and later McKelvie have been in negotiations with the federal Liberals about further funding since last year. But while he expects Ottawa could be “taken aback” by the city’s “peculiar” tactic, he’s not sure it will be effective. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurrMH Mahdis Habibinia is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto.