Waterloo Regional Council awards LRT contract

Waterloo regional council voted in favour Wednesday to award a $532.1 million dollar contract to Grandlinqto build stage 1 of the region's light rail transit project..

The vote passed with Waterloo mayorBrenda Halloran, Cambridge mayor Doug Craig and councillors JeanHaalboomand ClaudetteMillaropposed.

Stage 1 of the ION LRTincludes 19 kilometres of light rail connecting Conestoga Mall in Waterloo toFairviewPark Mall in Kitchener, to theGrandlinq consortium.

Area-rating motion causes conflict

Council also voted on a motion fromDoug Craig to exempt Cambridge from paying its portion of the LRT bill, but his motion was criticized by other councillors.

"That's the only way a region works is that you don't always get equally what you pay," said Councillor Jim Wideman.

For his part, Craig said he felt attacked by other councillors.

"It was unfair, it was nasty. When Cambridge comes up with a legitimate motion in terms of area-rating you have this kind of mentality on the regional council that just got so upset that we should even talk about these things," said Craig.

Craig's motion had only one other supporter,former Cambridge mayor Claudette Millar.

Before the vote was called, regional chair Ken Seiling read a statement refuting what he sees as a misconception that Cambridge gets short-changedas part of the Region.Seiling saidthe city actually pays less than it's share when it comes to housing, Ontario Works, policing and EMS.