The seemingly never-ending debate over a still-unfunded downtown Brampton light-rail transit (LRT) line is back where it started three years ago after council committed millions to study alternate routes.

At its Dec. 5 committee of council meeting, Brampton’s newly sworn-in council voted to restore a previously proposed LRT line along Hurontario/Main Street that was voted down by the previous council in 2015.

The only difference between the 2015 proposal and the one adopted by committee of council on Dec. 5, is the line would extend to Mayfield Road instead of stopping at Steeles Avenue as originally planned.

In 2015, previous council turned down $400 million in promised provincial funding for essentially the same project in favour of spending $4.4 million to study alternative routes along Kennedy and McLaughlin Roads.

As a result, there’s no provincial or federal funding currently allocated for any Brampton LRT lines — along Hurontario or otherwise.

“The funding that was on the table, it was ‘take it or leave it’. At the time, Minister (Steven) Del Duca was very clear,” wards 3 and 4 Coun. Martin Medeiros told The Brampton Guardian in June.

City staff has spent its time and resources studying the feasibility of running an LRT line around the downtown core ever since. In 2017, the city awarded consulting firm HDR Corporation the contract for the environmental assessment portion of the study.

“By completing this LRT extension study and choosing a preferred LRT alignment, the city will then be in a position to pursue funding from the provincial and federal governments for the next phase of design and construction of the LRT extension,” said city spokesperson Natalie Stogdill in an emailed statement earlier this year.

It is unknown how much of the $4.4 million has been spent in the more than three years since council approved the funding and began exploring alternative routes, but that study is effectively dead now that the proposed line is back on Hurontario/Main.

It appears the city committed to spending millions only to end up in the exact same place it started more than three years ago, after turning down the province’s original offer to fully fund the project.