Ontario's former Transportation Minister says the provincial government should consider taking over responsibility for the E.C. Row Expressway.
Steven Del Duca is pitching the idea of uploading the cost of maintaining the four-lane highway in Windsor as part of his candidacy for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Del Duca says he would launch a Critical Infrastructure Ownership Plan to start discussions with municipalities about the uploading of critical highways and roads like the E.C. Row and even the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.
The four-lane E. C. Row Expressway spans 15.4 kilometres from Ojibway Parkway in the west to Banwell Road in the east. It was built between 1971 and 1983, and costs the City of Windsor millions of dollars to maintain.
Del Duca says it would give commuters urgent relief and support communities like Windsor that have struggled to maintain critical highways, roads and bridges.
The Mayor of Windsor issued a tweet about Del Duca’s commitment, saying he was glad to see him change his position.
Del Duca also told AM800 News if elected, he would continue the work of the previous Liberal government and finish widening Highway 3 from two to four lanes.
"I will say very clearly, like I did when I was Minister of Transportation, Highway 3 does need to be four lanes," says Del Duca. "Our government, before I was Minister of Transportation, made some pretty significant progress but we didn't finish it, we didn't get that job done."
Highway 3 is currently four lanes from Windsor to the Town of Essex, but remains two lanes from Essex to Leamington.
Several local politicians have lobbied the province to complete the expansion.
Stats from Essex County show ambulances responded 193 times to emergencies on Highway 3 from 2013 through 2017. There were five fatalities during that period.
Del Duca's other ideas, released Thursday, would restore $364 million in annual transit funding that was cut by the Ford government and he is also committing to creating an Affordable Transit Action Plan that would see the provincial government move toward pricing transit on demand.
Del Duca, 46, is marking his 31 consecutive years as a card-carrying member of the Ontario Liberal Party.
He lost his seat in the Ontario legislature in the June 2018 election that brought Ford's Progressive Conservatives to power.
Details of the leadership bid are expected to be confirmed in two weeks at the June 7 annual general meeting in Toronto.
