Province nominates 5 Guelph transit projects for federal funding approval

The provincial government says it's sent five transit infrastructure projects for Guelph to the federal government for funding approval. 

The provincial government said in a release on Friday that they are "investing more than $100 million in transit infrastructure projects outside the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP)."

ICIP is a program that combines funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments to help build up communities and support a low carbon economy, according a provincial government overview of the grant. 

The project's in Guelph include: 

• expanding the frequency of routes by purchasing 30 new buses.

• upgrading and expanding Guelph central station terminal.

• constructing a new transit facility in Guelph that will have administration offices, bus fleet storage and charging station for electric buses.

• conducting a study to determine how to replace diesel buses with electric buses and establishing charging stations for those buses.

• constructing a 13 km protected on-road cycling network. 

The project comes in at a total of $171 million over eight years, Guelph treasurer Tara Baker said in an emailed statement to CBC Kitchener-Waterloo. The federal government funds 40 per cent of the projects, while the Ontario government funds 33 per cent, and the municipal government covers 27 per cent.

That means for these projects, the federal government would fund $45.5 million, the province would provide $37.93 million and the city would cover the remaining $30.6 million.

Wallace Pidgeon, director of communications for Minister of Infrastructure Laurie Scott, says the provincial government is in "total support" of Guelph transit infrastructure.

It may take a few months for the funding to be approved, Pidgeon noted.