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Toronto certainly figures prominently in the $50 billion transportation plan for the GTA, as it should.

Mayor David Miller and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) both sit on the Metrolinx board that released the ambitious - and vitally necessary - transportation plan earlier this week.

Notably, the plan confirms all of the transit projects identified in Toronto's Transit City initiative for a series of surface streetcar lines to help move more people through city neighbourhoods more quickly and more efficiently.

Metrolinx Chair Rob McIsaac noted at this week's announcement that, essentially, failure is not an option. All levels of government must now begin moving toward providing long-term and sustainable funding to get shovels in the ground and begin building.

Toronto continues to do its part, and the provincial government has made a commitment to it through its MoveOntario 2020 plan. Now it is up to the next federal government, regardless of which party forms it, to provide its share of funding and make the necessary investments in these needed transit improvements.

Miller was quick on Monday to call on the federal government, again, to turn its focus to transit in urban areas, particularly Toronto, and do the right thing. Miller pointed out that 80 per cent of the people who use public transit in Toronto and surrounding regions end up at some point in their daily commutes as TTC passengers.

Those commuters contribute considerably to the economy in the GTA and to its relative wealth.

To that end, surely the federal government must see that it has a role to play to encourage mobility within Canada's largest urban area, and therefore prosperity. It wasn't enough, as the Tories did earlier this year, to make permanent a policy introduced by a predecessor government. Toronto and the GTA needs a more fulsome, long-term program in place, funded proportionately by the federal government, to ensure that the Metrolinx vision for the region becomes a reality.

Without credible and long-term partnerships between all governments with a responsibility for oversight and policy making, Toronto and the GTA will have little to look forward to in the coming years beyond gridlock, excessively higher roads taxes and an aging transit system that can't adequately serve the populace.

Metrolinx has provided clear direction and a vision that can be realized. The City of Toronto and Province of Ontario are committed to seeing some of these important projects get underway. The federal government has provided some funding, though very little leadership on this file, and must recognize its integral role in supporting cities if it is truly governing the nation.