WINNIPEG – Ottawa has announced its share of funding for the next leg of Winnipeg’s rapid transit project.
St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover announced Monday the Harper government will contribute up to $137.3 million to the project part of the P3 Canada Fund.
The city and the province committed to pitch in $225 million back in November 2013. That triggered an application for the federal funding finally announced Monday.
The 7.6 kilometre route will link the existing Southwest Transitway to the University of Manitoba.
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Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman says how the city will fund its share will be included in this year’s municipal budget that will be revealed in the next few weeks.
“We’re going to identify the source during the budget and its being finalized right now,” said Brian Bowman.
He did say the project would be tough to proceed with if the federal government was not on board.
“We’ve got a lot of work to but this is a huge day for Winnipeg and this was crucial for this to proceed,” Bowman said.
The mayor campaigned on wanting to finish all six routes of rapid transit by 2030, however some transit users say rushing to finish the other lines may not be the best option right now.
“I’d rather see them not do it just so we don’t have to spend the extra money in taxes and neglect everything else that is going on in the city because there are a lot more priorities than the buses,” said Darryn Einarson, who rides transit every day.
Construction on the massive project is slated to start in 2016 with the completion date of late 2019.
Winnipeg Transit says the route will be fully functional by 2020.
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