Updated: Thu Mar. 26 2009 6:28:19 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

There are some measures in the 2009 provincial budget that should make Toronto and the GTA happy, from the promise of more infrastructure money to industry-specific tax credits.

But there is very little in the budget that has strings tied specifically to Toronto.

"Part of it is that there's so many other things in the budget today," Finance Minister Dwight Duncan told a news conference in Toronto on Thursday.

Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman would have more to say about infrastructure spending in the coming days, he said.

The province has committed to boosting infrastructure spending by $32.5 billion over the next two years, with a $5 billion federal contribution included.

Toronto Mayor David Miller said he was pleased with what he heard in the budget, calling the infrastructure spending "the single largest infrastructure program in the history of the province."

"The province is well aware of our priorities," he told reporters at Queen's Park on Thursday. "We're working well with them and I'm confident that this money will allow money to flow to Toronto to meet our priorities."

Duncan said some negotiations are ongoing with the federal government in terms of cost-sharing with municipalities, but noted the province handed out $1 billion in social housing last November.

A government official, speaking on background, said it's too say how much individual municipalities will get, noting they will have to first apply for funding of specific projects.

The government plans to spend about $100 million in tax relief and investments of about $30 million on what it calls the "entertainment and creative cluster."

That cluster is centred in the GTA, although some firms operate in Niagara, Waterloo region and Ottawa.

The government wants to advance Ontario as a "world-class financial jurisdiction."

Part of that will be to continue lobbying for a single national securities regulator - one headquartered in Toronto, he said.

The budget will provide $1.2 million to the Toronto Region Research Alliance, which exists to attract and grow research-oriented companies.