Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is furious with Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, calling him “confused” after his recent talk about scrapping LRTs.

“I think he’s a very confused person, especially a leader of a party,” McCallion said after Wednesday’s council meeting, where she lambasted Hudak for his recent comments.

Hudak said in media interviews this week that if elected premier he would scrap LRT projects under Metrolinx’s $50 billion regional transit expansion plan, in favour of subways.

Hudak was not available for comment, but a spokesperson sent the following remarks he made during a radio interview on Tuesday: “As for the Hurontario-Main LRT in Mississauga … I have to ask, what’s going to have the biggest bang for our buck? Could it be expanding the capacity of the 410 (highway)? Could it be expanding GO service? I do have an overall concern when you’re talking about taking out existing streets or transit LRTs in those lanes. I worry it’s going to make gridlock worse.”

McCallion has made the $1.6 billion Hurontario LRT, to run along the city’s spine, part of her legacy agenda in what she says will be her last term in office.

She has lobbied Queen’s Park and Metrolinx feverishly for the past year and a half to make the plan part of the next wave of Big Move projects to receive funding. The city has undertaken extensive environmental and design studies to get the project moving.

“All the politicians that are now getting involved, with no technical knowledge or technical expertise, and no background material, making comments without any facts to back it up — they haven’t done their homework on it.”

McCallion is not about to let Hudak give her residents a bunch of empty promises just to win an election, she said.

“I told him: ‘Stop misleading the people,’ to say that (with) all these (Big Move) projects to solve the congestion in the GTA … the financial costs can be covered by ‘efficiencies’ at the provincial government.”

Hudak said this week that he would find “efficiencies” rather than raise taxes to pay for transit expansion.

McCallion mockingly described the only way such so-called efficiencies could save enough money to fund transit expansion across the GTHA.

“The only way that the $50 billion capital cost can be covered is, close the provincial government. Close her up.”

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