City still waiting for rapid-transit cash from province, CFO reports

Winnipeg's chief financial officer says the province has once again fallen behind on promised funding for the second phase of the city's first dedicated bus corridor.

Mike Ruta told council's finance committee Wednesday the province has not provided$8.7 million of funding the city expected in 2017 to help build the second leg of the Southwest Transitway.

The city, province and Ottawa are sharing the $467-million cost of extending the bus corridor from Jubilee Avenue to the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus. The project also includes the widening of Pembina Highway to six lanes at Jubilee Avenue.

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Rutatold councillors the last city bill to the province involved $10 million worth of work. The province has yet to forward all the funds.

The city billed the province a total of $109 million for capital works of all sorts in 2017 including the bus corridor and has received $94 million to date, Ruta told the committee.

Council finance chair Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands) said he is not aware of the reason for the holdback. He said the city has made some progress on getting the province to forward promised funding.

A spokesperson for Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton said the province is still assessing the claims submitted by the city "and completing required due diligence before claims can be paid."

Earlier this year, Mayor Brian Bowman said the province was slow to provide capital funding and also complainedthe Pallister government had tried to amend the funding formula for the Southwest Transitway.