It has now been over a decade since two-way all-day GO train service from Kitchener to Toronto was first promised to our community.
In the time since, in addition to provincial funds for the project, the federal government has contributed three quarter of a billion dollars, 40% of costs, to help make it happen. Yet despite this, we still don’t even have a timeline for the project’s completion.
Meanwhile, folks in our community remain stuck waiting for overcrowded buses to get to Toronto – limiting their ability to work, visit loved ones, or access services. It’s not right.
Our community deserves answers, and that’s exactly what my team and I have been pushing for, starting with calls for the federal government to demand more accountability from the province, over the past two years.
Today, I’d like to share a recent updates on that advocacy, following up on calls I’ve made to the federal Minister directly urging him to demand a timeline from the province given the significant investment his government has contributed to the project.
Back in March , the CEO of Metrolinx appeared as a witness to a Parliamentary committee. In response to a written request for an update on the project resulting from that meeting – including a timeline for completion – my team and I received a deeply disappointing letter: two pages in length but still no timeline!
I’ve since continued pressing directly to the Minister responsible for infrastructure, including most recently at committee, and we made some progress. The minister publicly confirmed that this important issue will be on the agenda when he next meets with his provincial counterpart in late June.
Although it is still not the concrete answer we are looking for, it is an important step in increasing accountability from the federal government to the province.
I’ll continue to work alongside provincial advocates for this project, including MPP Aislinn Clancy and MPP Catherine Fife, to push for a firm timeline for our community.