At risk of losing $120M of unused funding, will council resurrect controversial BRT route?
CTV
The City of London has just five and a half years remaining to spend about $120 million dollars of provincial and federal funding earmarked for public transit and active transportation projects.
Use it, or potentially lose it.
The City of London has just five and a half years remaining to spend about $120 million dollars of provincial and federal funding earmarked for public transit and active transportation projects.
“I’m concerned that we are not going to use all of the money that was allocated to London,” Councillor Jesse Helmer warned the Civic Works Committee. “We will miss a massive opportunity that would be a real financial advantage to the property tax payers of London and those who pay development charges if we don’t get our act together.”
In 2018 London was offered up to $375 million dollars by the senior governments to cover 73 per cent of the construction costs for projects that improve public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
In early 2019, the newly elected city council submitted only three of the five bus rapid transit routes for funding, leaving $148 million unused.
In a new report, the city engineer recommends utilizing an additional $29 million for improvements to active transportation— leaving almost $120 million unused.
The clock risks running out.
