London transit plans on hold until province formally submits business cases to feds: MP

A local MP says the federal government is ready to work with the provincial Conservatives to improve transit in the Forest City.

On Wednesday, the Ford government announced London is receiving more than $100 million in provincial funding to assist with 10 transit projects approved by city council in March.

However, according to London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos, the federal government is still waiting for the province to submit business cases for each of the projects before they can move ahead with a review.

“We’re late in the game here; this should’ve happened months ago,” said Fragiskatos.

“I hope they submit as soon as possible. I’ll certainly be very worried if they haven’t submitted by the end of the week.”

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The federal review will take time, and following a lengthy approval process from the province, Fragiskatos is concerned construction will be delayed.

“We need to really analyze what has been envisioned by the city, give it a good thorough review and move from there,” he said. “I don’t know how long a review will take but I think we have to be prepared for the possibility that construction may not begin until 2020.”

While he’s not exactly sure what caused delays at the provincial level, Fragiskatos hopes it wasn’t political.

Regardless of the reason, Fragiskatos is hopeful the transit funding for London is a step in a new direction.

“This provincial government, quite frankly, seems more interested in reforming laws around how beer is sold than investing in communities. I hope the transit announcement is a shift away from that,” Fragiskatos said.

“They were elected over a year ago and they’ve only now made a commitment to the City of London and its transit future,” he said. “It’s disappointing, but I’m overlooking that and I want to focus on the future. Stay positive, and we want to work with the province as well as the city so that we can see better transit.”

980 CFPL has reached out to the provincial government for comment.

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The 10 projects come with a price tag of $383 million, with the biggest costs coming from three portions of an unbundled version of London’s contentious bus rapid transit plan. Those portions include the south-stretching Wellington Road Gateway, the Downtown Loop and the East London Link.

Other provincially supported projects include the purchase of 31 new buses, smart traffic signals and bus stop amenities.