Rapid transit plan still on the rails

The Region of Waterloo has no intention of backing away from its ambitious plans to create a light rail transit system. That's the assertion of regional councillor Sean Strickland, despite the absence of federal funding for the project at this point. While the region is expecting that money from Ottawa, no timeline has been provided for its arrival. The provincial government announced two weeks ago that it would contribute $300-million to the project.

Regional councillor Sean Strickland says the city of Ottawa recently received matching federal and provincial funds for its own rapid transit system. "Their light rapid transit system received $600-million from the province and also $600-million from the federal government. We're quite hopeful that the region of Waterloo will be treated the same way as the region of Ottawa and the amount of money we received from the province will be matched by the federal government."

The province had initially proposed it would fund up to two thirds of the $790-million project -- or about $530-million -- while the final third of funding would come from the feds. If Ottawa does match the province's funding announced two weeks ago, it would leave a gap of about $200-million to be covered by the municipality. That's money the region never intended to spend in the early stages of the project and Strickland says it would represent the largest capital project in council's history. "The previous largest was the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant which came in close to $100-million," he says.

Strickland admits that's a lot of money but he cautions there's also a lot of work yet to be done. There's still the matter of confirming an amount of federal funding and then discussions at the regional level about what the municipal government can afford. "I'm not prepared to say we're going to abandon the light rail transit system at this point in time," says Strickland. "Regional council overwhelmingly supported a light rapid transit system using rail and that's the system we're going to move forward with."

As for a meeting of area mayors proposed by Cambridge mayor Doug Craig, Strickland will have none of it. "This is a decision by regional council, not a decision by area mayors," Strickland explains. "Quite frankly I'm disappointed in Mayor Craig. This was a decision made by the council (of which Craig is a member). Even though he was opposed to it, I think it's quite untoward that he's actively working against it."

When the project was first approved by regional council 18 months ago, Strickland says they were hopeful of receiving funding from other levels of government by December of 2009 or January of 2010. Now that the provincial money has finally come through, Strickland is not about to hazard a guess as to when the federal funds will flow. But he does stand by council's decision to go for rapid rail as opposed to rapid buses. "This is a mode of transportation for the future," Strickland says. "Think of the cost of operating a car in 30 years combined with the detrimental environmental effects of having all these vehicles on the road. We need higher modes of transportation and light rapid transit using the rail system is the way to go."

Regional council favoured a light rail system over a rapid bus proposal in its vote last year. The current plan calls for a series of rapid trains between Conestoga Mall in Waterloo and Fairview Mall in Kitchener, with rapid buses connecting Kitchener to south Cambridge.