Second phase of BRT remains off city’s infrastructure list

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This article was published 28/04/2010 (5960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — City council has endorsed an infrastructure-funding wish list disliked by opposition councillors because it doesn’t include Phase Two of bus rapid transit.

 Council voted 9-5 this morning to approve a list of road, bridge and bike-trail projects that could be built with the help of federal and provincial money.

The 11-item list includes the extension of Chief Peguis Trail toward McPhillips Street, traffic improvements in Polo Park and the widening of Kenaston Boulevard in River Heights.

It also used to include the $220-million second phase of the Southwest Bus Rapid Transit Corridor, but the busway was replaced with an active-transit pathway parallel to Pembina Highway.

The city is in the midst of building the first phase of the project, a $138-million busway from Queen Elizabeth Way near The Forks to Jubilee Avenue at Pembina Highway. Construction is expected to wind up in 2011.

The city was slated to begin construction of Phase Two of the southwest corridor in 2012, but Mayor Sam Katz has postponed the plan in favour of lobbying other levels of government to fund a light-rail network in Winnipeg.

A motion by Couns. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge) and Dan Vandal (St. Boniface) to place Phase Two back on the funding wish list failed 9-5.

Five out of six opposition councillors voted against the infrastructure-funding wish list. Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt voted along with the council majority.

The Selinger government has offered to contribute $63 million toward Phase Two of the bus corridor, based on the old cost estimate of $189 million.

Katz has said the money is not enough, but that’s also irrelevant because projects funded by all three levels of government under the Building Canada Fund must enjoy unanimous support.

As well, Katz has complained other Canadian cities have received transit funding from other sources. Winnipeg has not received its fair share of Building Canada Fund cash, he has said.

The mayor has repeatedly urged Premier Greg Selinger to fly to Ottawa with him to lobby the federal Conservatives to support light rail.

The provincial government has been cool to the idea and has urged the city to complete the southwest bus corridor.

Senior Manitoba MP Vic Toews has said Ottawa stands behind the provincial government.

Later today, council will also debate a Katz plan to spend up to $100,000 to compare the costs and benefits of light-rail transit vs. bus rapid transit.