Worrying about the fate of Stage 3 LRT before we repair the transit system\u0027s day\u002Dto\u002Dday problems isn\u0027t the right way to go.
“Using buses out to Kanata and Stittsville would be about 20 to 30 per cent of the cost ,” said Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, who also happens to be chair of the transit commission. “We have a good Transitway corridor,” agrees Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo. “I don’t feel we’re using it to its full potential.” Similar thinking comes from Kanata Coun. Cathy Curry.
The cost of Stage 3 is now set at $6.5 billion, with $2.5 billion for Kanata-Stittsville and $4 billion for Barrhaven. Gower says the Kanata leg would cost 30 per cent less with a transitway, which would bring it down to $1.8 billion. But who pays? And what happens to Barrhaven? The city has long maintained it doesn’t have money for Stage 3, and expects provincial and federal governments to foot the bill. But who knows: maybe it has $1.8 billion stashed away somewhere for a new busway.
So, this report that Stage 3 may be unaffordable is bizarre, especially since the city never intended to fund it, and other governments have never said they won’t. Why, then are we suddenly fixated on Stage 3, which is some nine years away, when Stage 2 isn’t even completed? It is strange that the city is talking down Stage 3, when it needs provincial and federal government money. Talk about Ottawa shooting itself in the foot.
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