Ottawa Rapid Transit Network developments

[waterloowarrior]

Western Light Rail Transit Corridor Extension (Lincoln Fields to Bayshore Station)

Open House #1 - June 19, 2014
http://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public...1-june-19-2014
Planning and Environmental Assessment Study
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Foster Farm Community Centre Gymnasium
1065 Ramsey Crescent, Ottawa
6 to 8:30 p.m.
Transit Access: approximately 250m walk from Pinecrest Station

By attending this open house session, you will learn more about this study for a light rail transit (LRT) corridor to run between the planned Western LRT Corridor (from a junction south of Lincoln Fields Station) and Bayshore Station. At the meeting, City Staff will provide information on the process and objectives and identify preliminary design issues to be addressed by the study. You will have the opportunity to meet and discuss your comments with the study team.
The City's Transportation Master Plan (TMP 2013) identifies the Western Light Rail Transit Corridor Extension as a component of the future expanded rapid transit network, integral to achieving modal share targets for public transportation.

Study Area

The Study Area extends between the existing Transitway (from a junction south of Lincoln Fields Station) and Bayshore Station, along Highway 417. It includes Connaught Park and Pinecrest Creek towards the east.



Proposed Western LRT Extension alignment

The Environmental Assessment portion of the study will be undertaken in accordance with the Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) as prescribed in Ontario Regulation 231/08, Transit Projects. The final Environmental Project Report will be integrated with that of the Western Light Rail Transit Corridor (Bayview to Baseline) Planning and Environmental Assessment Study.

Accessibility is an important consideration for the City of Ottawa. If you require special accommodation, please call or e-mail the project lead below.

[waterloowarrior]

Baseline Road Rapid Transit Corridor(Bayshore Station to Prince of Wales Drive) » Open House #3 - June 2, 2014

Display boards are up

http://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public...-3-june-2-2014

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

If "we" can't afford it in Ottawa, "we" can't afford it anywhere else in Ontario, either.

Meanwhile, this is disgusting:

http://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/mayor-...ervative-party

I can scratch one party from consideration. I hope the PCs not only fail to make any inroads in Ottawa, they deserve to lose a seat or two (though that's unlikely.)

That's difficult to accomplish. The Liberals are essentially already 'maxed out' in Ottawa, they have every seat they're likely to get. Of the currently PC seats in the Ottawa area, the one most likely to be a Liberal pickup is Carleton-Mississippi Mills.... and that's already a big challenge for them.

[Mikeed]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

A disappointing consequence of a bankrupt province.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle18980450/

Actually Ontario is the lowest spending province in Confederation. Queen’s Park spends less per person on programs and services than any other province.

And we also have the lowest tax burden in the entire federation, so this could be framed as a revenue issue but people are content to drive on crumbling roads rather than pay a cent more in taxes.

[lrt's friend]

You should hear the spin on CFRA concerning the Hudak announcement saying No to LRT Phase 2. They are trying to temper his clear statement.

Let's face it, 100,000 people are going to get canned in order to fund tax cuts.

We are going to go through another period like the Harris years when public infrastructure crumbled and nothing is built to handle increasing population.

Hudak says that we can't afford it but at the same time funding tax cuts and permanently shrinking the tax base.

This leaves future governments in a difficult position to clean up the resulting mess that is inevitably going to happen just as was the case when PCs were kicked out of office the last time. Just this time, it will be even more difficult with even smaller tax base.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

A disappointing consequence of a bankrupt province.

If we are so bankrupt, then why are we talking about tax cuts? This is the same rhetoric that Mike Harris gave us and didn't he also ring up more debt during his term of office, eventhough the economy was booming at the time.

[lrt's friend]

Hudak is now backtracking as he has tweeted that we must balance the budget first before considering Phase 2. Just remember that tax cuts become the second priority. Apparently, pressure has been applied by local PC candidates. Well, doesn't this tell us how Hudak has been out of touch with Ottawa issues?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

A disappointing consequence of a bankrupt province.

If we were bankrupt, we couldn't afford Hudak's plans to:

a. lower income taxes by 10% and corporate taxes by 30%. Considering we have the lowest corporate taxes in North America and one of the lowest income taxes, this isn't necessary and straight up asinine if we are "bankrupt";

b. have Queen's Park fund 100% of planning, studying and building subway lines in Toronto. You can't tell Ottawa (and every other City outside Toronto proper) the province can't afford to hand over 975 million for 35 kilometers of rapid transit and then turn around and hand over billions to Toronto for subways.

To put it into other words, we can't afford 70 million per kilometer for most Ontario LRT projects, can't afford Ottawa's 85 million per kilometer metro system but we can afford 500 million per kilometer for TO subways that aren't even in the planning phase.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

If we were bankrupt, we couldn't afford Hudak's plans to:

a. lower income taxes by 10% and corporate taxes by 30%. Considering we have the lowest corporate taxes in North America and one of the lowest income taxes, this isn't necessary and straight up asinine if we are "bankrupt";

b. have Queen's Park fund 100% of planning, studying and building subway lines in Toronto. You can't tell Ottawa (and every other City outside Toronto proper) the province can't afford to hand over 975 million for 35 kilometers of rapid transit and then turn around and hand over billions to Toronto for subways.

To put it into other words, we can't afford 70 million per kilometer for most Ontario LRT projects, can't afford Ottawa's 85 million per kilometer metro system but we can afford 500 million per kilometer for TO subways that aren't even in the planning phase.

Notice what you said. If they aren't even in the planning phase, Hudak can support them all he wants knowing that no funding will be needed for several years. Empty promises, which can easily be delayed or cancelled depending economic conditions.

Of course, he is supporting the Eglinton Cross-town which is already under construction. I am sure, he wishes he could be the second Conservative premier to fill it in again so the tax cuts could be implemented sooner. Likewise, he is supporting the Scarborough Subway extension knowing that the federal Conservatives have already agreed to fund it.

From my understanding, the extension of the Yonge subway to Richmond Hill is foolhardy without building the Downtown Relief Line first. The Yonge subway cannot handle the extra passenger traffic that would be generated by an extension.

[canabiz]

Originally Posted by S-Man

With Longfields complete, the extension of Chapman Mills Drive would complete the transportation grid in central Barrhaven.

Construction is well underway for the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) on Chapman Mills. I believe this will connect the new Greenbank Road to Nepean Woods and possibly further.

[lrt's friend]

The latest from CBC News is that local PC candidates are trying to soften Hudak's emphatic comments that LRT Phase 2 will not be funded. It is now being suggested that Phase 2 will be considered once the budget is balanced, so why the emphatic comment when the budget is to be balanced in 2016 but construction is not to begin until 2018. Something is not adding up.

[eemy]

God I hope Hudak isn't elected.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

God I hope Hudak isn't elected.

Here won't according to the polls. Even post-debate, the Liberals have a healthy lead. They may even win a majority, depending on what happens with NDP/Green vote. Green party is polling very high, approaching nearly 10%. If that vote is coming from the NDP (which the numbers suggest) it will lead to a Liberal majority as the Green will draw away NDP votes allowing the Liberals to come out on top in many places.

[McC]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Here won't according to the polls. Even post-debate, the Liberals have a healthy lead.

"had"?
http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...from-new-data/

[YOWflier]

Boy. Lots of indigestion last night I see. I guess many of you don't realize that many "liberals" are also fiscal "conservatives". Gasp.

Since there's no appetite around these parts for fiscal restraint, probably because many haven't reached the age of enlightenment yet, let's just hope that Kathleen's gravy train spills fair funding for LRT phase 2, and Ottawa projects in general. After all, she says she'll make it a "priority", whatever that means.

And since I'm in her cross-hairs for a tax increase, I can only hope my hometown's projects benefit from some of those dollars.

[McC]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Here won't according to the polls. Even post-debate, the Liberals have a healthy lead.

"had"?
http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...from-new-data/

Also, depends which polls, hasn't IPSOS showed a Tory lead the whole time? Forum had them changing places?

[McC]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

And since I'm in her cross-hairs for a tax increase, I can only hope my hometown's projects benefit from some of those dollars.

I'm not defending the income tax increase, I think it's dumb and ineffective -- we should be upping the HST 2 points and increasing the rebate for low-income families, I digress -- but those tax increases aren't going to bite anyone too badly.

A one percent increase on the marginal tax rate for income between $150-220K only has a maximum cost of $700 to to someone making over $220K, which is pretty small beans to someone making over $220K. (just a reminder to anyone who doesn't pay a lot of attention to income tax policy, and because marginal tax rates can a be a tricky concept, the tax increase costs $0 to someone making $150K, it only applies to each dollar made in excess of $150K, so if you make $151K the tax increase is $10; at $161K it's $110 and so on). True, the two percent increase on the marginal tax rate for income between $220-514K can add up to a big number for someone making half a million dollars per year (maximum cost to someone making over $514K of $5,880), but someone making over half a million a year can afford the extra $6,780, or better yet, a good accountant, and restructuring their income to probably get around a good chunk of that, which brings us back to why I think this is dumb policy.

[lrt's friend]

We tend to forget that the wealthy already have tax advantages. For example, the fact that only half of capital gains are taxable.

If it is true that we are already the lowest provincial tax jurisdiction in the country, how can further tax cuts be justified? And we know that tax cuts will be trumping investment in public infrastructure. Furthermore, usually these tax cuts benefit that top income earners the most.

It seems to me that a deficit problem is best addressed with a sensible combination of spending reductions and revenue increases. It is American Tea party rhetoric that demands that these problems be entirely addressed by spending reductions. Regardless, at some point revenue will have to increase whether through taxes or other measures. As we saw before, it was previously dealt with through a provincial health fee which is a more regressive way of obtaining revenue compared to the tax system. We can complain about that all we want but at some point, we need to pay for our schools, hospitals, roads, police, fire and transit services. The easy way out is to say that we eliminate middle management and perhaps some of that is necessary, but we have to be careful that too much management cutting may result in inadequate project oversight.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by McC

"had"?
http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...from-new-data/

That poll might be a bit off due to a weird sample in Ottawa/Eastern Ontario where Hudak is at 50%+ which seems a bit rural 'Ontario Land Owners Association' over representation in the sample.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by McC

"had"?
http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.ph...from-new-data/

That's new, at the time of my post that poll wasn't out yet.

It should be noted that even in that poll, Liberals lead by 4 points among likely voters.

If the real vote matches the EKOS likely voters (a big leap of faith, I admit), that's a Liberal majority, as it puts the Liberals up 2 points relative to 2011, the PCs same, NDP way down and the Greens up a bit. Those 2 extra points almost certainly give the Liberals those few extra seats needed to push up to the high 50s, especially if there's a drop in the NDP vote. Remember that the PCs have a lot more wasted vote than the Liberals. That means that to win even a minority, they need to be at least 2 points higher than the Liberals. And whereas the Liberals could probably win a majority in the high 30s (depending on NDP vote), the PCs would have go into the low 40s to get that.

We also have to yet what (if any) the effects of the whole Watson-Hudak LRT/question debacle will be. I expect it will hurt them in Orleans, less so in the other ridings, and probably not at all in GPR.

Which brings me to... those Eastern Ontario numbers are likely a lot of wasted PC vote in the countryside. Hudak's platform is very, very appealing to the PC base, so turnout in the rural ridings is probably going to be very high. Keep in mind that in 2011, the Liberals & PCs each took exactly half of Eastern Ontario's seats, even though the PCs won the popular vote here handily. Of the 7 Liberal-held seats, at absolute most, only 4 of them are flipping blue (GPR, Ottawa-Orleans, OWN, Ottawa South). There's absolutely no way in hell Ottawa-Vanier, Ottawa Centre, or Kingston will go PC--they'll go NDP (heck maybe even Green!) before they do that. So no matter how high PC numbers explode out east, remember their gains are capped at 4.