WATERLOO REGION — The province won't commit to building a new Highway 7, after delaying it over cost concerns and after cancelling Hamilton light rail for the same reason.

"It is time for us to have a decision on Highway 7," said Catherine Fife, NDP MPP for Waterloo. "The people who sit in their cars, stuck driving 20 kilometres an hour between Kitchener and Guelph, those people have been doing that for over a decade.

"So at the very least (Premier) Doug Ford can let us know if this project is a go or if it's not, because then we can start to mobilize for another transit model."

"Would we like to see more certainty? Of course everybody would. This seems to be a province of uncertainty right now," said Art Sinclair, vice-president with the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

Sinclair said business leaders will lobby for a new Highway 7 as they have for a dozen years since the province endorsed a new highway. "The commitment was there 12 years ago and we're getting kind of impatient," he said.

The Progressive Conservative government delayed a new Highway 7 in 2018, stalling construction of twin bridges over the Grand River.

More than a year later, the government has changed transportation ministers and undertaken minor highway preparations, adding to more than $120 million spent to buy land and advance the project.

This week the government cancelled Hamilton's LRT after spending more than $160 million to buy land and advance it.

Asked if Highway 7 also faces the chop, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said only that "preliminary engineering work" related to soil and environmental conditions is underway.

"I'm truly concerned this government doesn't understand how important infrastructure investment is, to our economy and to the environment," said Fife, a Highway 7 proponent and jobs critic for the opposition NDP.

Ontario approved a new Highway 7 in 2007 to ease congestion, improve safety, and speed people and products. The four-lane, divided freeway is proposed to run just north of the current highway for 18 kilometres between Kitchener and Guelph.

Approval followed decades of consideration and 18 years of planning. A full cost estimate has not been made public.

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