Brampton goes to bat for Hurontario LRT tunnel expansion

Mayor Patrick Brown says he’s making the case for more funding to expand the Hurontario LRT and build a tunnel through the city’s downtown.

Brown, several city councillors and city staffers were at the Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) Annual General Meeting and Conference this week to engage with government Ministers, officials and key stakeholders across the province.

In past years the conference has offered a chance for Brampton to plead its case for a new hospital. But with provincial funding already secured for the Peel Memorial Centre upgrade, Brown said his focus has shifted to transit.

“Now that we’ve got the new hospital coming – the billion dollar investment – we’re focusing on the LRT extension,” Brown told inSauga publisher Khaled Iwamura in an interview on Friday (Aug. 19).

 

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The expansion is slated for completion in fall 2024, and the 18-kilometre Hurontario LRT will take passengers between Mississauga’s Port Credit GO station in the south to Steeles Avenue in Brampton in the north.

Brown said he wants to see the LRT connect to the Brampton GO station, and says the tunnel option is the best bet for the city’s heritage area in the downtown.

“The goal is you want to connect the region of peel, you connect it with LRT connecting to GO as well,” Brown said. “So we’ve got a great plan, we just need the funding,” Brown said.

Last August, the city said it was looking for a $1.3 billion commitment from the province and the federal government to fund the project and sign off on an underground tunnel to the Downtown Brampton GO Station, but that ask jumped to $1.7 billion this year for the project.

Even with the Peel Memorial upgrade on the books, Brown also said that there’s more to be done with healthcare in Brampton and is calling for “shovels in the ground” on a new medical school as soon as possible.

“It looks like we’re going to have the first class in 2025, but I’m pushing them to move that file faster and forward,” Brown said.

Back in December, Federal Minister of Transportation Omar Alghabra said the federal government is willing to consider the initiative, but only if the province also comes to the table with funding.