Vaughan-Woodbridge candidates speak: traffic congestion

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 24, 2015

The Vaughan Citizen has posed a set of questions covering a wide range of matters to candidates running in the riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge for the Oct. 19 federal election to help local voters better understand their positions.

Responses received from candidates by The Citizen’s publication deadline will be published in the newspaper, and online at yrmg.com over, the next several weeks.

NDP candidate Adriana Zichy and Green Party candidate Elise Boulanger did not respond by publication deadline.

Q. Traffic congestion in Vaughan has been costing residents time and money for years and it’s only getting worse. What is your party’s plan to alleviate traffic congestion and gridlock and how, specifically, will it be funded?

Conservative Julian Fantino:

As someone who has lived in Vaughan for nearly 40 years, the growth and transformation of our community has been incredible. While growth is welcomed because it means that we live in a great community, it also means a lot more traffic and gridlock. While traffic issues are the responsibility of provincial and municipal governments, our Conservative government has been at the table to help address this important issue in Vaughan. Indeed, we invested nearly $700 million for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension project. This project will extend the Spadina line into Vaughan, providing rapid and reliable connections to GO Train services and six new subway stations, including one at York University. We also recently pledged $2.6 billion for Toronto’s “Smart Track” transit plan. This plan will alleviate traffic in the GTA - helping Vaughan residents who commute daily in the GTA for work or school.

Libertarian Anthony Gualtieri:

Traffic congestion is certainly an issue in many major cities, ours included. Responsibility for traffic is a municipal responsibility, not federal, and that's a good thing. Hypothetically, if the federal government would be tasked with municipal congestion it would mean that taxes collected say in Alberta would pay to build roads in Vaughan, or tax dollars collected in Vaughan would be used to build a bridge in P.E.I, this is not fair. The best solution to sustainable and reliable flow of traffic needs to be looked at from a preventative stand point, accomplished in the pre-planning stages. Look at the size of some communities here. Many residents in Vaughan live in a home with a single driveway, but have more than one car, this forces them to park on the street where they will likely receive a ticket for blocking a snow route in July, fairness lacks in Vaughan.

Liberal Francesco Sorbara:

Residents here in Vaughan-Woodbridge know firsthand the frustrations that come with sitting in gridlock day after day. A Liberal government will quadruple federal investment in public transit over the next decade by investing almost $20 billion more. Municipalities - which are responsible for the majority of public transit in Canada - have limited revenue sources. We will work with municipalities to see that local projects are prioritized, and ensure funding is flexible rather than a roadblock to development. We will also provide our provinces, territories, and municipalities with the long-term, predictable federal funding needed to make community transit plans a reality.

In Vaughan, this investment will help us with major projects like the York Region Transit/Viva Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and facilitate the Highway 427 extension, giving Vaughan unprecedented access to transit and transportation.