Ontario business leaders back LRT-based plan

Ontario business leaders have added their voices to an ongoing debate over establishing light rail transit and Bus Rapid Transit outside of Toronto proper—in general voicing strong support for a proposed regional transit plan with LRT at its core.

At a meeting Thursday night before the Kitchener, Ont., city council, Craig Beattie, a partner with Toronto-based Perimeter Development Corp., said, “Risk-taking is a very important piece of city-building as well as business-building.” Beattie’s company, redeveloping Kitchener’s Breithaupt Block of industrial buildings, believes “[t]he time to make a decision on this is now” in support of a plan to establish LRT, he said.

Desire2Learn chief executive John Baker said the proposal is a strategic investment that would support the mobility of his company’s employees and would encourage foreign investment in the region. He said all of his staff members that he’s spoken to support the LRT plan. “I can see the value, especially if you’re trying to attract young talent into the downtown cores,” he said.

The proposed C$818 million LRT plan would establish light rail in Waterloo and Kitchener, with feeder rapid buses running into Cambridge. LRT would be extended to Cambridge in the future. A vote on the plan by the Waterloo Regional Council is scheduled for June 15. The 16-member council includes mayoral representatives from Cambridge, Kitchener, North Dumfries, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich, Ont.

But Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran seeks a voter referendum on the plan, which would allow (or force) voters to choose between LRT or BRT. The Region Council may vote on approving such a referendum as early as June 1.