Premier Kathleen Wynne says her relationship with mayor John Tory is not broken, while Tory tells reporters that it was no longer business as usual at a regularly scheduled meeting Monday.
The two politicians avoided standing side by side for a joint press conference after sitting down together at Queen's Park, their first meeting since Wynne announced she will block Tory's plan to install tolls on the Gardiner and DVP.
It was on Friday that premier Wynne instead promised to double the amount of money cities get from the gas tax, to improve transit.
Today was the first time the two politicians did not answer reporter questions together after one of their regular sit-downs. Mayor Tory rushed out of the building after shaking the premier's hand for a photo.
Both insist that the meeting was constructive on issues like transit and housing.
Premier Wynne walked mayor Tory to the door but no joint press conference today pic.twitter.com/WXVIXDkOSW
— NEWSTALK1010 (@NEWSTALK1010) January 30, 2017
"I recognize that there's a disagreement with the City of Toronto," Wynne later told reporters. "A strong relationship can go through periods of disagreement, or issues of disagreement, and come out on the other side even stronger."
Wynne insists that her decision is not related to her re-election campaign, but rather about making sure people have more options on how they get around before tolls are considered.
"History will judge," she said, when asked what it says about her as premier to block a decision made by a city council.
Tory is now challenging Wynne to come up with more funding for transit, as well as housing.
"With the anticipated federal support, I very much hope and expect that means the province will substantively and significantly address this issue and contribute fairly," he says.