Downloading a road (CanE)

[ribran]

Hi, everyone.

There's a particular usage I've come across several times in articles about Canadian roads, such as Wikipedia's article on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Ontario, where it is explained that

The 427–Humber section was downloaded by the province to Toronto in 1997...

The rest of the article suggests that this means that the provincial government transferred ownership and maintenance of that part of the road to the Toronto government. Is this a strictly Canadian usage? I've never come across it in AmE and it doesn't seem to be common in BrE.

Thanks.

 

[perpend]

Never heard of it, but it's ironic that it's not "downroaded".

 

[Pertinax]

Interesting. It seems to be a variant of "offload". It hasn't made it into the OED.

 

[Cagey]

Here is a thread on a related usage: crisis download
In this context, a 'crisis download' is when a girl tells another girl her troubles, this can be called a "crisis download". That is, the first girl unburdens herself by 'dumping' her problems on her friend. The link to the original source doesn't work, but it seems to be from an article abut Oprah Winfrey, so American English.

As I understand your example sentence, the province has 'downloaded' the burden of maintaining the road to Toronto (the central government).

 

[Szkot]

As I understand your example sentence, the province has 'downloaded' the burden of maintaining the road to Toronto (the central government).

I think you mean the city (municipal) government. Canada's central government is in Ottawa.

 

[Cagey]

I think I did ~ or should have.
Thank you for the correction.