The province plans to streamline the process to grant environmental approval to green projects such as solar and wind power as part of its plan to prop up the economy with infrastructure funding.

"There's been an overall feeling that some of these processes simply take too long and sometimes the processes have also been used in order to block perfectly legitimate projects," Environment Minister John Gerretsen said Tuesday.

The new rules could come in February. CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss said the government hopes employment gains in those areas will offset expected losses in autos and other parts of the province's manufacturing sector.

Toronto and the GTA will likely gain the biggest boost from infrastructure spending, with transit being the biggest winner, Bliss said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday that his government has many projects waiting for federal funding, while Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said the government could put federal cash to work building roads and bridges almost immediately.

"The first advantage is that it creates jobs on a pretty immediate basis. But the second advantage is it also leave a legacy there that is important," the minister said.

However, a high-speed rail link spanning from Windsor to Quebec City is near the top of McGuinty's wish list for federal infrastructure spending.

He told reporters at Queen's Park that "(Quebec) Premier (Jean) Charest and I are both very strong champions of that."

Such a link would allow someone to travel from Montreal to Toronto in 2.5 hours. Driving would take about six hours.

The project comes with a $25 billion price tag, but would create thousands of jobs.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will be delivering his economic update on Friday, and is expected to deliver a full budget earlier than usual. The purpose will be to spend federal money on infrastructure projects to ease the pain of the recession Canada -- and virtually every other world economy -- is experiencing.

The projects could range from highways and bridges to rail lines and transit.

"This needs to happen as soon as possible," Flaherty said Monday. "We are working with the provinces, the territories, the municipalities, to accelerate our infrastructure investments."

Opposition MPPs at Queen's Park had hammered the premier in question period on Tuesday, demanding to know why the government doesn't have a list of infrastructure projects ready for when Ottawa starts signing cheques.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss