Article content

As former politicians, we follow policy discussion closely as city building is an inherent part of our thinking.

We try to defer from publicly commenting on political issues out of respect for the elected members of council, and frankly most don’t want to hear a retired politician’s musings. We have contemplated the debate about bus rapid transit (BRT) and feel we need to share our perspective as it seems politics has gotten in the way of good public policy.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Former mayors: BRT has been 14 years in the making Back to video

Over the years we have supported various forms of transportation to move people effectively and efficiently. The bus rapid transit (BRT) concept is not a recently determined strategy. It has been studied and advanced by every council since the 2004 Transportation Master Plan followed in 2006 with the London Transit – Rapid Transit Strategy.

The Transportation Master Plan of 2009 called Smart Moves integrated transportation policy (including rapid transit) with planning policy and financial growth management strategies. In-depth analysis has occurred through transportation and transit master plans, environmental assessments, infrastructure growth management plans and multi-faceted financial assessments. Over a decade of study, a multitude of community meetings and many unanimous council recommendations over three different councils, the project moved along from concept to number 1 infrastructure priority.