Toronto City Hall is hopeful that Ottawa’s commitments to infrastructure, unveiled Thursday in the federal budget, will herald a much-needed cash boost for the city’s crumbling infrastructure and congested transit system.

The ruling Harper Conservatives announced $47 billion in funding for infrastructure projects across the country over the next 10 years, including $14 billion for a new Building Canada Fund for major projects of “national, regional and local significance.”

Though the modest budget from Ottawa didn’t direct funding to a specific Toronto project, the city may apply for a portion of that fund to fix roads such as the crumbling Gardiner Expressway, and apply for money for transit projects.

The announcement was welcome news to TTC Chief Karen Stintz, who said Toronto’s congested transit system could stand to gain a piece of the pie for a new subway line.

“We know the downtown relief line is a significant priority for the city, so my expectation is that it would be the first kind of infrastructure project that we would make application for,” Stintz told reporters Thursday.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities had asked for $5.75 billion per year ($57.5 billion over 10 years) in federal funding for long-term infrastructure projects.

The budget also recommended indexing the Gas Tax Fund, a move that would inject $9 billion in revenue to municipalities over the next 20 years. In Toronto, that translates into more money for state-of-good-repair maintenance for transit.

The New Democrats slammed the budget, saying it “ignores the needs” of the GTA and leaves the region to fend for itself.

“This budget does nothing to address gridlock, does little to address crumbling infrastructure and doesn’t make sense for Toronto and the GTA,” Toronto MP Andrew Cash said in a statement.

But Public Works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong said Toronto needs to be realistic about what it can receive from the federal government amid a struggling global economy. “The economy is not as robust as they’d like it to be, so I think we have to be practical,” he said.

In a brief written statement, Mayor Rob Ford called the budget “welcome news” for Toronto.

“I’m happy to see that many of Toronto’s ideas are reflected in the budget and I look forward to working with the federal government to ensure Toronto benefits fully from these funding commitments,” he said.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Natalie Johnson