Just when I was about to write an editorial on the impact further delays in the launch of Ottawa’s LRT system is having on commuters (the latest odds are on late July) I happened to read this week’s column by Orléans MP Andrew Leslie’s on the 2019 Federal Budget.

In it, he mentions the fact that the budget contains funding for first time homebuyers. There’s over a billion dollars to cover the costs of renovations to make homes more energy efficient. There’s a rebate program to provide up to $5,000 toward the purchase of electric cars that cost less than $45,000. There’s an increase in the Guaranteed Income Supplement for Seniors. All of which are good things. There’s even money in the budget to replace the Alexandria Bridge and rehabilitate the Chaudière and MacDonald-Cartier bridges, all three of which are long overdue.

But when I read the part about the need for an interprovincial crossings study led by the NCC, I instantly broke out into a cold sweat an April Fool’s joke. Are you kidding me!@#? We need another interprovincial crossing study like I need a hole in the head.

Now, I’m fully aware of the fact that the last interprovincial crossing study was done under the auspices of the former Harper government, but it was as thorough and complete as it could be. It also cost more than $4.5 million and my head started throbbing. If it was April 1, I would have immediately chalked it up as and was one of the most controversial and divisive studies in the city’s history, basically pitting the communities of Vanier and Orléans against each over the potential location of a bridge.

The study initially looked at 13 potential options for an interpro-vincial crossing and then narrowed the list down to three – Kettle Island connecting with the Vanier Parkway; Duck Island connecting with Hwy 174 near Canotek Park; and McLaurin Bay which would have taken the bridge precariously close to Convent Glen North.

In the end, the preferred location turned out to be Kettle Island, which has been the preferred location of every single interprovincial crossing study ever done. The only problem was that the politicians wouldn’t go along with the findings and the study was mothballed and placed in a dark room with all the others that preceded it.

You do not need another study. You do not need to waste another $2.5 million coming to the exact same conclusion as all the other studies. All you need is the political will to build a bridge at Kettle Island, or failing that, tons of money to build a tunnel under the Ottawa River connecting Gatineau to King Edward and Hwy. 417. Pick one and be done with it and spare us all with having to relive another pointless waste of time, money and energy.

The answers lie in an interprovincial inquiry and the sooner its undertaken the better.