Doug Ford pledges to continue Highway 7 expansion between Kitchener and Guelph if re-elected

Ontario PC Party Leader Doug Ford, who made appearances in Kitchener and Cambridge on Thursday, is pledging to continue construction on the expansion of Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph.

A release from the Progressive Conservative Party says that if re-elected, it will move forward with Phase 2 of the construction of the highway to take it from two lanes to four.

“Only the Ontario PCs have a real plan to build highways for a growing province, including building Highway 7 to fight gridlock and reduce traffic along the heavily travelled 401 corridor,” Ford said.

2:13 Ontario election 2022: Ford absent from campaign trail, Horwath and Del Duca make new pledges

“After promising to build this highway in 2007, the Del Duca-Wynne Liberals shelved this project for over a decade, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars in the process.”

Contrary to Ford’s claims, work on the project to expand the highway had begun by 2016 under the previous Liberal government after decades of being under consideration by both Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments.

It was then partially paused when the Ford government took office in 2018 but two years, the PCs announced that they would fund the completion of the project, which will see the road expanded into an 18-kilometre freeway with a new crossing over the Grand River.

The project will also include seven interchanges, including a new multilevel interchange where new Highway 7 meets Highway 85.