Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks in Ottawa two days before local byelection

Ontario Premier Doug Ford visited Ottawa on Tuesday, just days before a provincial byelection in a local riding, to tout government spending on rapid bridge replacements on Highway 417.

He was joined by Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney. 

The byelection was called upon the departure of Progressive Conservative MPP and cabinet minister Merrilee Fullerton in March. Her departure left the Ottawa region without any cabinet representation in Ford's government.

No new money or policy was announced Tuesday, but Ford and Mulroney appeared to tout previous spending on Highway 417 rapid bridge replacements. The province has already committed $425 million toward replacing bridges on the Queensway. To date, bridges at Booth Street, Rochester Street, and Bronson Avenue have been replaced, with work on the Percy Street Bridge taking place next month and at Preston Street next year.

"These rapid bridge replacements will help ensure that we can keep people and goods moving throughout the Ottawa region for years to come," said Ford. "As our population and economy grow, our government is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Ottawa’s road and highway system. We’re getting it done and building the infrastructure this region needs to reach its full potential."

Six people are running to replace Fullerton in Kanata-Carleton:

• Jennifer Boudreau – New Blue Party
• Melissa Coenraad – Ontario NDP
• Karen McCrimmon – Ontario Liberal Party
• Josh Rachlis – Independent
• Steven Warren – Green Party of Ontario
• Sean Webster – PC Party of Ontario

Elections Ontario said 6,664 people voted in advance polls last week. Polling stations will be open on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the byelection.

Ford expressed his support for Webster when speaking to reporters Tuesday.

"Ottawa needs more voices at the table. We have three great MPPs in the region, but it's always nice to have a fourth voice. We need even more voices for Ottawa," he said.

A byelection is also being held on Thursday in the riding of Scarborough-Guildwood to replace Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter, who resigned to run for mayor of Toronto.

Province waiting for city of Ottawa to fix LRT

Ford and Mulroney were asked about Ottawa's light rail transit system as it remains offline for an eighth full day. 

OC Transpo, the city's transit service, made the decision July 17 to shut down the entire 4-year-old light rail line in the middle of the afternoon after a routine 50,000 km inspection of one of the vehicles revealed an issue with an axle bearing.

On Monday, the city announced that train service would remain offline for at least another week, and that a full redesign of the wheel hub assembly on the line's light rail vehicles would be undertaken.

Speaking in French, Mulroney said it's up to the city to solve the issues on the line, but the province is a financial partner in Stage 1 and Stage 2 of LRT and is looking forward to seeing solutions. 

Ford said he was pleased with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe's leadership on the transit file, and criticized the administration of former mayor Jim Watson.

"We want to see the line running without problems, without derailments or other issues," he said. "It seems like every second week there's a problem… I'm not an engineer but you don’t need to be… I don't feel there was any leadership when it was being built but now we have mayor Sutcliffe in there, taking the bull by the horns."

Ford maintained his previous statement about holding back on provincial funding for Stage 3 of LRT to Kanata and Barrhaven until issues on Stage 1 are fixed.

The premier also addressed the recent derailment on the Scarborough RT, but said he disagreed that decisions made during his and his brother Rob's time at Toronto City Hall contributed to the issue.

"We're going to decommission that LRT and we're building the Scarborough subway," he said. "This could have been done many, many years ago... but the province back then under the Liberal leadership of (Dalton) McGuinty and (Kathleen) Wynne, they refused to support the people of Scarborough, so that's changing and we're going to deliver subways, finally, to the people of Scarborough."