PRETTY MUCH LOST last Thursday, amidst the stories on Karlheinz Schreiber's first day of testimony before the House of Commons ethics committee and release of a report on mortality rates in Canada's large hospitals, was coverage of the first Speech from the Throne read by Ontario's new lieutenant governor, David Otley.

Entitled "Moving Forward the Ontario Way," the throne speech was full of optimism and had something for just about everyone, including promises ranging from improvements in education and health care to improved relations with our First Nations. But, as is usually the case with throne speeches, this one was long on promises and short on details.

A classic example was the promise to follow a five-point economic plan that formed part of the McGuinty Liberals' successful re-election campaign.

Among the five points were vague promises to invest more "in the education and skills of our people," to keep the province's tax system "competitive" and to support innovation and the creation of "good, high-paying jobs."

But the one that should be of greatest local interest was the fourth point: "Accelerating the largest investment in the province's infrastructure in 50 years, including MoveOntario 2020, a historic expansion of public transit."

Only time will tell what the government really has in mind for the crumbling infrastructure, let alone whether it has the means at hand to do what's so badly needed.

One thing for sure is that a huge portion of the infrastructure problem is at the municipal level, where a combination of downloading and grant-program cancellations by the Harris Conservatives has left municipalities unable to maintain, much less improve, their infrastructures, even with sharply higher property tax rates.

And although the problem could easily be eliminated through restoration of the grant programs and uploading of the services, it's hard to see how the Province could balance its budget without raising income and/or sales taxes.

It will be interesting, indeed, to see the government flesh out its "MoveOntario 2020" plan, which we presume is as longterm as the title would suggest.

Thus far, all we've been hearing about are plans of a short-term nature, such as the extension of GO Train service to Barrie and adding tracks to the CNR lines used for GO's Lakeshore and Georgetown lines.

For some reason, there doesn't appear to be any serious consideration of providing new commuter rail service northwest of Toronto, apart from a vague plan to have some GO Train service out of Bolton.

It must strike a lot of Dufferin and Caledon residents as passing strange that there has been no talk of even limited commuter service along the little-used Orangeville-Brampton Railway, the former CPR line between Orangeville and Streetsville.

Fifty years ago, the CPR introduced 'Dayliner" service between Toronto and Owen Sound that saw rail diesel cars making the 120-mile trips in three hours. That service lasted barely 20 years, thanks in large part to a determination of the national railways to get out of passenger service and eliminate their branch lines.

Today, with Greater Toronto Area gridlocks an almost-daily occurrence, a trip from Orangeville to downtown Toronto during the morning and evening rush hours will typically take longer than the roughly 80 minutes the Dayliner took to reach the Union Station via Streetsville.

In the circumstances, we suspect that a morning and evening commuter train between Orangeville and Toronto would be immensely popular, even if it involved no equipment beyond the three coaches used for the Credit Valley Explorer tour train.

(Yes, the short-line railway is currently licensed for speeds below 30 miles an hour, but we're confident that at modest expense the roadbed could be upgraded to allow 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h) on the straightaways.)

Similarly, there would seem to be no good reason why limited GO Train service should not be planned for places like Alliston and Peterborough, both of which once had frequent passenger-train service.

A similar lack of detail was to be found in a section of the throne speech headed "A Greener Ontario."

Although the speech talked boldly of a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions "by six per cent below 1990 levels by 2014, 15 per cent below by 2020 and 80 per cent below by 2050," there was no explanation how such targets could be achieved.

The promise to "replace coal, double renewables, double conservation and modernize our nuclear capacity" would seemingly fall far short of obtaining such lofty objectives.

The sad fact of the matter is that as the government enters its fifth year in office, the reality is that it hasn't committed itself to additions to generating capacity that would replace the existing coal-fired capacity (6,000 megawatts), let alone allow for any growth in demand.

Nor has there been any evidence that the government is prepared to take the heat that would accompany the aggressive measures required to accomplish such goals.

As one small example, the second phase of the Melancthon II wind power project, which at one point was to be in operation by the end of this year, faces yet another Ontario Municipal Board hearing and likely will be at least a year late, at huge cost to Canadian Hydro Developers.

Clearly, governments at all levels are finding it a lot easier to make promises than to keep them while retaining everelusive popularity.