City Council has decided not to backstop more than half a billion dollars of missing funding for the southeast LRT line – effectively delaying the project.
The expansion comes with a price tag of $1.8 billion but council was missing $515 million of that.
On Wednesday council considered several options including raising taxes by three percent over five years to secure the missing money.
Ultimately they decided raising taxes was not the answer and that they would instead continue to lobby the provincial and federal governments for contributions.
“We’re optimistic, just the timing issue is a little bit complicated because of the flooding issues and the budget with the federal government which does not come into effect until 2014. We gotta work out some other details,” said Ward 12 Councillor Amarjeet Sohi.
Construction was originally slated to begin in 2015 with trains running by 2019. With the delay, the Mayor says that is no longer possible.
“I think we have to be realistic,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said.
“By the time we get all the funding in place, I think 2020 or 2021 is reasonable.”
Administration estimates the price tag for the project will jump between 60-80 million dollars each year the project is delayed due to inflation.
With files from Veronica Jubinville
