Credibility of Ford government is at risk over latest Highway 7 delay, chamber of commerce says

WATERLOO REGION — Plans approved 16 years ago to build a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph have run into another delay.

“I think the (provincial) government has to look at this as a matter of credibility,” said Art Sinclair, vice-president of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, which has long advocated for the improved highway.

The Progressive Conservative government was re-elected last year after campaigning heavily for new highways, Sinclair said.

“So I think they have to move something forward, or they have to be showing progress, and the sooner the better,” he said. “I think they have to demonstrate that they can get projects done.”

In the latest delay, the Ministry of Transportation cancelled a construction tender worth up to $27 million to replace the Frederick Street bridge that spans the expressway in Kitchener.

Replacing the bridge is required for a Highway 7 interchange. In June 2021, the province advertised a construction tender for a contract to replace the bridge.

In November 2021, a ministry spokesperson said the contract would be awarded in January 2022, calling it an “important procurement milestone” aimed at “getting shovels in the ground as soon as possible” for the new highway. The spokesperson said bridge construction would begin later in 2022.

But an online government document indicates the province never awarded the construction tender. A different ministry spokesperson declined to respond directly to questions, and did not say when or why the government cancelled the tender.

“Design of the Frederick Street bridge replacement is well underway with utility work targeted to begin later in 2023,” Aruna Aundhia said by email.

In a statement Monday, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris said “the pandemic put unprecedented pressures on the global construction industry. … Due to commercial sensitivities and to protect the procurement process, we are unable to comment on the current tender.”

Harris said the government of Premier Doug Ford is “moving forward with the construction of the new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph to keep local residents moving.”

The province promised in 2007 to build a four-lane, 18-kilometre freeway to run just north of today’s two-lane highway. The new highway, long endorsed by municipal councils and business leaders, would ease congestion and move people and goods more safely between the cities.

“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, so we don’t expect it to be done overnight,” Sinclair said. But the chamber wants to see progress.

Decades of planning preceded Ontario’s approval of a new Highway 7. Since its approval, successive governments have spent more than $120 million to buy property and complete advance work, but have not said when the highway will be built or at what cost.

“I know that the incrementalism may seem frustrating, but it actually represents real progress,” Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney told a local audience last year, four months before the election. Mulroney remains transportation minister.

A new Highway 7 requires two new bridges over the Grand River. An earlier government said it would complete those bridges by 2020. They remain unbuilt.

In its latest highway construction plan, the Transportation Ministry says it is targeting 2024-2025 to start construction on the new bridges over the Grand, at a cost of more than $80 million. The plan does not have a bridge completion date, or when a new Highway 7 will be started or completed.

“We’ve been getting signals from the government. They’re committed to building this project and moving ahead with it. We’re still optimistic,” Sinclair said.

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