A former provincial minister running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party has included a Windsor thoroughfare in a bold transportation plan.
Steven Del Duca, former Minister of Transportation under Kathleen Wynne, is preparing to run for the party leadership by laying out three critical ideas designed to help Ontario's commutersand municipalities with highway, road, and bridge care. One of those ideas includes Windsor's E.C. Row Expressway.
E.C. Row is among major urban thoroughfares Del Duca said will benefit from the Critical Infrastructure Ownership Plan (CIOC), which he said will open talks with local governments on what he called a "potential provincial upload" of these types of roads.
"We need a genuine, good-faith discussion with our municipal partners about which level of government is best-positioned to own and maintain critical highways, roads, and bridges," Del Duca said in a media release. "This dialogue is long overdue, and I have sent letters to Toronto Mayor John Tory, AMO President Jamie McGarvey and representatives from several other municipal organisations to provide them with my ideas."
The other parts of Del Duca's plan are the Affordable Transit Action Plan (ATAP), which would include half-off discounts for off-peak fares on transit systems across the province, and a pledge to restore $364-million for supporting local investment in public transit. An increase had been scheduled to take place by 2021-22, but the current provincial government cut the increase from this year's budget.
Del Duca joins Michael Coteau as the only declared candidates for the Ontario Liberal leadership race thus far. A date for the nominating convention has not yet been set.
