Ottawa won’t make up provincial shortfall
Posted Jul 28, 2010 11:47:49 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo Region’s hopes for rapid transit have been dealt another blow. Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear says the federal government will honour its commitment to fund one third of the $790-million project but it will not make up for the shortfall in provincial funding.
“The province came out — pre-election, of course — and stated it would pay two thirds of this system,” Goodyear said in an interview on 570’s Jeff Allan Show. “The federal government, we got a commitment for the remaining one third. So now the province has broken its promise to this region and it leaves us in the lurch.”
Initially, the province had said it would fund up to two thirds of the region’s rapid transit project, for a total of about $530-million. But in an announcement last month, the province committed just $300-million to the project.
Goodyear minced no words when it came to what he characterizes as a failed commitment from the province. “I think John Milloy should get on the phone to Premier McGuinty today and express the disappointment we share as a federal government that a promise is a promise.”
One-third funding from the federal government amounts to about $260-million, which leaves the project more than $200-million dollars short of its current price tag. Goodyear says the federal government is in full support of a rapid transit system for Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo. “The project itself has changed and matured over the years and so our commitment has risen and changed with the proposal.”
He says that proposal is “on the desk” of federal transportation minister John Baird, with whom Goodyear has met several times over the past few months to discuss the project. Goodyear says the project remains alive and well and the federal commitment “has not and will not change.”
Kitchener-Centre MPP John Milloy would not engage in a public war of words with Goodyear. “My only response to Mr. Goodyear is that I’ve heard him in the media over and over again, talking about a federal commitment. But we’re yet to actually see dollars or a cheque in the mail, so to speak.”
Milloy was also quick to defend his government’s $300-million commitment to the project, calling it the “largest single investment in transportation infrastructure in Waterloo Region’s history.” Milloy says he’s delighted that the funding could flow to the region after all the work between municipal and provincial officials, adding that he would “love to see the federal government come to the table.”
Regional chair Ken Seiling admits he would love to see the same thing. “Maybe this was the announcement. If it is, I don’t know about it and I wasn’t told about it,” Seiling said today on 570’s Gary Doyle Show, responding to Goodyear’s remarks.
Despite the fact the federal commitment of one-third funding falls short of the region’s hopes that the feds would match what the province promised, Seiling remains optimistic about the future of rapid transit. “I think we’re all quite optimistic that given the provincial contribution, (combined with) a significant federal contribution, that this project will be able to go ahead.”
