‘Blatantly lying’: Orleans Liberal candidate blasts PC campaign signs saying he wants tolls on Hwy. 174

Orléans Liberal candidate Stephen Blais says giant signs suggesting he has a plan to impose tolls on Highway 174 are “blatantly lying.”

Giant yellow signs have appeared in Ottawa’s east end, saying “Honk to oppose Liberal Blais’ 174 toll plan.”

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Progressive Conservative candidate Stéphan Plourde confirms to CTV News Ottawa the campaign “proudly put up these signs because the people deserve to know the facts.”

“Liberal candidate Stephen Blais has openly supported a $5-a-day toll on Highway 174, a policy that would cost local commuters hundreds of dollars a month,” the campaign said, adding Blais proposed a toll on Highway 174 when he was an Ottawa councillor.

Blais called on the Ontario Liberal government to upload Highway 174 and its costs in 2013. Blais said if the province wasn’t going to upload the highway, it should allow the city to collect funds for drivers using Highway 174 to pass through the city from communities east of Ottawa. In June 2013, Council directed staff to write a letter to the province calling on Ontario to upload the highway to provincial responsibility, and request the city be allowed to designate parts of the road a toll highway.

The new Ontario-Ottawa deal announced by Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe last March included uploading responsibility of Highway 174 to the Ontario government.

Blais tells CTV News Ottawa the Liberal Party is “committed to re-uploading the highway, making it safer and reducing commute times for Orléans residents.”

“For 15 years Stephen Blais has dedicated his career to reversing the Conservative download of Hwy. 174 to the City of Ottawa, by re-uploading it to the province to ensure fairness for Ottawa taxpayers,” the campaign said.

“Stephen has introduced Bills to re-upload the 174 twice, both times they were killed by the Conservative Government. For seven years Doug Ford’s Conservatives have done nothing to improve Hwy. 174 or reduce commute times for Orléans residents.”

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Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford announced two weeks ago that a re-elected PC government would ban so-called congestion charges on Ontario roads and highways, and would remove tolls from Highway 407 East in the Greater Toronto Area. In a media release, the PC Party said Liberal candidates “have made it very clear that they would raise costs for drivers.” The party said Blais, “thought it was a good idea for non-Ottawa residents to be charged a toll when driving on Highway 174.”

Ownership of Hwy. 174 has been a debate in Ottawa and at Queen’s Park since the Progressive Conservative Government of former Premier Mike Harris downloaded the road to the city of Ottawa in 1997.

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Ottawa Road 174 runs from the interchange with Highway 417 to the city of Ottawa’s limits at Canaan Road.

Ontarians head to the polls in the provincial election on Feb. 27.