Canadian Elections: O’Toole Fails to Deliver LRT Promise from Ottawa to Barrhaven – Ottawa | The Canadian News

Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole did not pledge to fund the extension of the Stage 3 light rail from Ottawa to Barrhaven while campaigning in the region on Tuesday, despite earlier promises that a CCP government would pay its share for the LRT to Kanata.

The long-term plan for Ottawa’s LRT system, which officially opened two years ago on September 14, 2019, includes Stage 3 expansions to Kanata and Stittsville in the west and a branch connecting the line to the suburb of Barrhaven in the south. The 11-kilometer west expansion has been estimated to cost $ 1.85 billion, with the 10-kilometer extension between Algonquin College and Barrhaven Town Center priced at $ 3 billion.

Earlier this month, the Conservative Party promised that, if elected, the government would commit funds for the Kanata extension of the light rail system without mentioning the Barrhaven stretch.

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O’Toole was asked directly during a campaign stop in Russell, Ontario on Tuesday if he would also commit to the Barrhaven extension. While he said he was willing to work with local levels of government to ensure municipal transportation priorities are funded, he did not provide a direct response on additional Stage 3 funding commitments.

“We have already committed to the Kanata LRT and we are there to be a partner with the council, Mayor Watson and the local levels of government,” O’Toole said.

“This will be our focus on an association of federalism. In infrastructure, we need to be associated with the priorities of the provinces and municipalities and then the federal government has to go one step further with money and accelerate these economic investments, ”he said, before adding that a conservative government would seek to link those commitments to housing. density goals.

Mayor Jim Watson sent a survey to all local candidates in the 2021 federal election, asking up front if they would commit to a 50 percent share of the costs of the entire LRT stage 3 expansion.

The deadline for that questionnaire passed Monday, but Watson has yet to share the results publicly.

No other federal party leader has explicitly acknowledged future expansions of Ottawa’s LRT line during the campaign. The current liberal government had not yet committed to funding 50% of the cost sharing required for the infrastructure project before the elections began.

The council’s decision to approve the route for an eventual extension to Barrhaven last November came with controversy, as the staff’s proposed alignment would result in the demolition of 120 houses in the Manor Village.

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