Ford wants infrastructure and energy funding for Ontario in federal budget, 401 tunnel ‘always part of discussion’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to reporters at Queen's Park on Tues. Nov. 4, 2025. (CP24)

As the federal government prepares to table their budget today, Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has a wish list of items he hopes to see that will benefit his province.

• What the federal Liberals are pitching in their 2025 budget

Namely, Ford said he’s hoping to see funding for infrastructure and energy.

“Hopefully, a lot of infrastructure funding for our requirements, and obviously, the Ring of Fire,” Ford said in a scrum at Queen’s Park on Tuesday. “We were out with the prime minister a week ago when we were over at Arlington, but we’re looking at large-scale nuclear as well at Wesleyville and possibly some other sites. So, hopefully he’ll put the money towards what we need and what we need right now is energy.”

The premier then referred to a report from McKinsey and Company, which said by 2030, “data centres are projected to require $6.7 trillion worldwide to keep pace with the demand for compute power.”

“I think that’s an opportunity to be first out of the gate and attract businesses here that will put in the data centres,” Ford said. “We have the climate number one, but we have the power that no one else has, so we have to get the market as quickly as possible.”

Ford also responded to a question about his proposed tunnel under Highway 401, which he had previously asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to prioritize as a “nation-building project” in a letter earlier this year in May.

Last month, Carney was asked by CTV News Toronto whether he would support the project and said discussions were underway with the provinces to consider many new projects that could receive funding.

He gave no specific endorsement for the 401 tunnel proposal.

“It’s always part of the discussion,” Ford said when asked about it on Tuesday. “We waste $56 billion a year on traffic... and we need to get the goods to market as quickly as possible.”

“And we need to get people from point A to point B. Anyone that’s driven on the 401—the busiest highway in North America. It’s jam-packed right up to midnight every single day, from six in the morning to midnight. So, we have to get people moving.”

The federal government is set to unveil its budget today in the Liberals’ first fiscal update in almost a year.

With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman