Plans for Lasalle, Regent Street bike path stall after cancelled cap-and-trade program

Future provincial funding for a bikeway linking Lasalle and Regent in Sudbury is up in the air.

The four-year Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Fund has ended after one year, after the province cancelled its cap-and-trade program, effectively shutting off the source of funding for the program.

Marisa Talarico, Sudbury's Active Transportation Coordinator, told CBC News that the city has received just over $1 million in the first and final allocation from the province.

"We were really hoping for those future funding allocations," Talarico said.

"We did submit a project list of almost $2.8 million worth of projects and we received the $1.1 million this year. We were hoping to receive a similar allotment in the three future years."

Half of this year's money will go towards building the first leg of what will become the Paris-Notre Dame Bikeway, she said. The other half will go to bike parking and marking routes throughout the city.

Talarico said the city has committed funding for the next few years and hopes the PC government will come up with a new cycling infrastructure fund to replace the cancelled one.

"Council has dedicated $800,000 per year to cycling infrastructure but being able to leverage that money into over $2 million dollars this year was really critical to being able to move forward as quickly as we have," Talarico said.