Focus federal funding application on Green Line LRT, lobby group urges

City Hall needs to stay on track when applying for federal transit dollars, says a citizen- led lobby group.

On Monday, council will consider whether to apply to Ottawa’s new Public Transit Fund for the Green Line LRT or a more broad application for numerous projects in the city’s $ 13- billion RouteAhead plan.

LRT on the Green, a non- profit organization, said council should reject the broader application for RouteAhead because the plan is too broad and almost three times more expensive than the Green Line.

“Council would be throwing an unnecessary ‘ Hail Mary pass’ in the hopes the federal government agrees to fund its third of every single transit project needed in the next 30 years,” said Jeff Binks, president of the organization.

“It would be a shame if Calgarians lost a game we were close to winning,” Binks said.

In the spring, the federal government announced it would dole out $ 750 million each year starting in 2017 to municipalities through its Public Transit Fund. The program will grow to a $ 1- billion fund by 2019.

Council sees the fund as a possible solution to building the Green Line LRT, a central line stretching from Country Hills in the north to the deep southeast.

But last month, council’s finance and priorities committee approved an amendment asking city administration to expand the scope of its application to include the RouteAhead plan — a 30- year transit blueprint that contains several projects.

It’s a shotgun approach that will likely fail, says Coun. Shane Keating.

“The amendment says let’s look at all RouteAhead ( which) is a plan not a project,” said the Ward 12 councillor, who has long lobbied for a new LRT line to ease commuter woes in the city’s southeast. “You can’t apply for a plan. You apply for a project.”

“If we’re going to get ( funding) then it has to be for a specific project,” Keating said. “The shotgun approach is not something you want to go forward with.”