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Before the meeting, Mayor Jim Watson emphasized to reporters that the city isn’t blowing the budget on Stage 2, since council hasn’t set the project budget.

“Most people that I have talked to understand that when estimates come in a hot construction market, there are going to be adjustments normally upwards,” Watson said, adding that the city has also added millions of dollars to the scope of the project for the long-term efficiency of the municipal rail system.

“This is the time to do it right and to not go and start cutting corners that would only cost us a lot more in the years ahead and make it much more disruptive.”

On whether the city can afford more than $4.6 billion, considering the payment scenario hinges on more-than-expected borrowing and a promise by the former provincial Liberal government to double the gas tax transfer, Watson said he trusts the city treasurer’s analysis that the project is affordable for the City of Ottawa.

City treasurer Marian Simulik said only the revenue streams out of the city’s control should be considered a financial risk for the transit project.

As an example, she pointed to the promised gas tax increase, a key source of LRT funding for city hall. The current Progressive Conservative government hasn’t indicated it would limit the gas tax transfer, but it would be out of the city’s hands.

Still, the city doesn’t think the PCs would scrub the Liberal gas-tax pledge because it would hurt the City of Toronto, and as Simulik told Coun. Diane Deans, “what’s good for Toronto is good for the rest of the province.”