Montreal, December 4, 2017 - The province of Ontario will invest 93 M$ in cycling infrastructures by the end of the 2017-2018 financial year. This is double the 42.5 M$ announced earlier this year. This morning's joint announcement was made by Transport Minister Steven Del Duca, in collaboration with Tourism Minister Eleonore McMahon and Environment Minister Chris Ballard. These investments are part of the Climate change action plan and is financed by proceeds from the provincial pollution cap and carbon market. The #VeloOntario strategy, of which this initiative is a part, calls for investments of 225 M$ over a four-year period.
«With the scale of these investments, over a single year, Ontario becomes the Canadian leader, and gives a clear signal that we would like to see from the Quebec government," emphasizes Suzanne Lareau, President and CEO of Vélo Québec. Currently in Quebec, government investment to help municipalities create bike lanes is 5 M$ annually. Our expectations are high with the future Sustainable mobility policy under the leadership of André Fortin, the new Minister of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transportation Electrification.»
The Quebec government's future sustainable mobility policy is expected to take shape in the next three months with the next Quebec budget. In Bicycle Vision 2025, According to the platform recently published by Vélo Québec, with the collaboration of a hundred or so leaders in the cycling world, the Quebec government's target for cycling infrastructure is 100 M$ annually.
