The City of Guelph has put together transit and waste water proposal that it hopes are in line for joint federal-provincial funding, a city official said Thursday.
The Government of Canada announced this week a massive $1.4 billion injection of cash into Ontario through the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund, covering up to 50 per cent of funding for needed projects. The total funding for Ontario transit will be close to $3 billion when the provincial contribution is tacked on.
Scott Stewart, Guelph’s deputy CAO, said it is his understanding that the first round of that announcement focused on Ontario’s larger cities. But a second round of funding announcements is coming, he said, and Guelph is expecting a response in it to a package it put together some time ago.
“We’ve been quite proactive in putting together some packages,” said Stewart, adding the transit priorities were delineated to council earlier in the year. “We looked at, if this infrastructure funding comes through what is our best guess at how they will fund things.”
He said Guelph’s proposal for transit funding has been delivered to relevant provincial ministries, as have proposals for waste water projects.
“We’ve got a bit of everything, so if they go a certain way we want to make sure that we can play,” he said. “We have a nice package in on a transportation master plan, that will be part transit, part pedestrian, and part goods movement.”
The transit piece, he added, focuses on functional additions to the system, things like bus stops and shelter, and new fare boxes.
“Things that are needed,” Stewart said.
Beyond transit, Stewart said there is also an expectation that the city’s needed waste water projects may also be in line for federal/provincial infrastructure funding, and an announcement could come just before or just after Labour Day.
“We are hoping for some really exciting news to share, given all the preparatory work that city staff have done,” he said. “I think that Guelph will fair nicely.”
