Mayoral hopeful Motkaluk wants to halt rapid transit work, put money into existing transit system

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This article was published 26/07/2018 (2247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk is promising to halt work on rapid transit at the point of contract completion if she’s elected in October.

While proclaiming her pro-transit credentials, Motkaluk said the construction of rapid transitways isn’t the best use of taxpayer funds and was a mismanaged project pushed forward without a ridership impact study.

“I’m pro-transit. I’m not pro-BRT. The first step to better transit is a clean break from the mistakes of the past,” she said Friday. “Winnipeg can afford better transit service, or more empty BRT stations. We can’t afford both.”

Motkaluk made the promise at the Jubilee rapid transit station. Halting all work on the southwest transitway wouldn’t save the city any money, she said.

Instead, she’s proposing all construction contracts related to the southwest line be honoured and the work completed, followed by formal ridership tracking.

Motkaluk also said she’d honour funds allocated to consultation on the proposed second leg of the line, but only until earmarked funds have been used up.

In addition, she promised there would be no further rapid transit funding requests made to the province under her administration.

The money saved from halting further work would be funnelled back into the existing transit system, which she said would be a more efficient use of the city’s limited resources.

She also pointed to recent news that, six years after its completion, repairs are already being conducted on portions of the southwest rapid transit line as evidence the project has been handled poorly.

“I think it says a lot of things about the ability of the City of Winnipeg to partner with its construction partners in these projects. That deficiency that now needs to be made up with 700,000 more taxpayer dollars,” Motkaluk said.

“This shows the City of Winnipeg is not a good steward of our money. Why is it that every time a capital project goes awry it’s the taxpayers that are on the hook and it’s never any of the other partners?”

Motkaluk said she believes her proposals — particularly re-routing money into the existing system — would be welcome news to the union that represents the city’s transit drivers.

When reached for comment however, Amalgamated Transit Union local 1505 President Aleem Chaudhary wasn’t overly receptive.

“We know that the best time to have built rapid transit was 40 years ago,” he said in a written statement. “The second-best time is now, especially as our city continues to grow.

“While it’s great to see transit emerging as an issue so early in the campaign, we don’t see the issue as being split between an either/or of investing in rapid transit or increased resources for existing transit services. Investments in existing service as well as rapid transit must work together.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe