Comment 66554

By Larry Di Ianni (anonymous) | Posted July 20, 2011 at 06:46:57

Bratina said, "You have to remember that when I wanted a return passenger service to the James Street North station, the mayor was against it, of the day, the planning department were against it, of the day. They were looking at Copetown as a place to put a station. And, to be fair, the Minister of Transport was against it. So, I was fighting three levels of government and now it's on the verge of happening. So, I guess I did champion that."

With all due respect, some selective memory is on display here, as well as some spinning. I was the mayor of the day and Copetown was not my preferred choice. Neither was it the Federal minister of the day's choice. For me, downtown or the east end were fine. My priority was getting Via service back into the city. For its part, Via looked at all options (including Copetown), but the one they were pushed to be interested in was the Centennial area of the city. I had key Council support for putting it there with a strategy of then reconnecting to James Street once the committment had been made by Via. The then Councillor of the day saw this as a lack of confidence in downtown and ragged the puck. He wanted to conduct a public process on the best location for a new station. I conceded and participated, thinking we had time to move Via into the city.

The problem is that the Liberal government fell and the Via dream was derailed. Too bad. Via would have been back into the city seven years ago had I pushed the councillor's concerns aside in favour of the city's interests.

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