Region approves $1.9-billion plan for a second ION line
Council's 12–4 vote sends the Cambridge extension to Queen's Park, where a funding decision is expected before the legislature rises in December.
Regional council voted 12–4 on Tuesday night to approve the second stage of the ION light rail line, committing the Region of Waterloo to a $1.9-billion project that will not carry a passenger before 2034.
The vote came after four hours of delegations, most of them in favour. What the room agreed on was the route. What it did not agree on was the money.
Under the funding split approved with the plan, the region carries 40 per cent of the capital cost, with the province and the federal government each covering 30. Neither has committed. Regional chair Karen Bhatt said she expects a provincial answer “in this session, not the next one.”
We have designed this thing twice already. What we have not done is pay for it.
Coun. Priya Ellison, Cambridge
The four dissenting votes came from three Cambridge councillors and one from Woolwich. Their objection was the debt schedule, which under current projections takes the region past its self-imposed borrowing ceiling in 2031.
Staff argue the ceiling is a policy, not a law, and that the alternative — deferring construction to the next decade — adds an estimated $600 million in escalation.
Construction on the first section, between Fairway and Preston, would begin in 2029 if provincial money arrives on the schedule staff have assumed. A decision on the maintenance facility site has been deferred to the autumn.