GO Train motion stirs politics

Fife calling for timeline on all-day service

WATERLOO REGION — Kitchener Centre Liberal MPP Daiene Vernile says a successful private member’s motion — asking the Liberal government, by April, to commit to clear funding and timelines for allday, two-way Go Train service between Toronto and Kitchener — carries no clout.

“In terms of having any legislative obligation, there is none,” Vernile said in a phone interview on Friday. “It’s not like anything is going to change. This is just about people talking about things that matter to them.”

Still, the motion, from Kitchener-Waterloo New Democrat MPP Catherine Fife, carried unanimously at Queen’s Park on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s not surprising that Daiene Vernile is downplaying it,” Fife said in a phone interview on Friday. “It’s partisan politics, right?”

Vernile was not present for the vote. She said she had critical meetings in the riding Thursday, including an afternoon food bank fundraiser. She said she isn’t scheduled for house duty Thursday afternoons, when such motions are usually discussed.

“Any backbench MPP can stand up and put a motion forward,” Vernile said. “A motion is just saying, ‘Hey, do we all like and agree with this?’ But there is no legislative obligation to do anything with a motion.”

Fife said she wants timeline and funding plans for enhanced Kitchener-Toronto service to be declared by the Liberals before Ontario voters go to the polls on June 7. Currently four morning trains and four afternoon trains run between Kitchener and Toronto. Fife concedes the motion, although passed, is missing some teeth.

“In some respects, it’s non-binding,” Fife said. “But I’m holding them to their promise. I’m making sure that they are actually going to include it in a document that I can actually hold them to account for.”

The timeline, Vernile said, was set at 2024 when the Liberals campaigned in 2014 and has not changed.

“Any MPP can table a motion, pretending to care about an issue,” Vernile said of Fife’s motion. “But talk is cheap. We need to pay for these transit initiatives and, if you look at Catherine Fife’s record, she consistently voted against everything that plans and pays for better transit in our region.”

Fife defended her voting record, saying those items were couched in bigger bills.

“The budgets I voted against have reduced funding for autism, for instance, and included cuts to hospital operational budgets. They’ve been omnibus pieces of legislation,” Fife said. “If this government brought forward a piece of legislation specifically on regional express rail and that infrastructure, and they had clear timelines and funding allocations, I would support it.”

Fife’s motion had the support of Kitchener-Conestoga Conservative MPP Michael Harris. On Friday, Harris criticized Vernile’s dismissal of the motion’s legislative value.

“I would say that is sheer arrogance,” Harris said in a phone interview on Friday.

“That, frankly, is throwing sand into the people of Kitchener-Waterloo’s face to suggest that, you know, this motion is meaningless.”