The federal and provincial governments announced a combined investment of more than $7 million toward the construction of a new transit operations facility in Milton.

When combined with the more than $39 million being allocated to the project by the Town of Milton, the budget for the project exceeds $46 million.

The facility will improve the storage and servicing needs of the town’s public transit fleet. It will be constructed using sustainable design practices, such as the use of LEED criteria, and will house 36 conventional and specialized vehicles as well as provide extra space for servicing and maintenance.

“The new transit operations facility will transform public transit in Milton by increasing service reliability and safety through improved maintenance,” said federal infrastructure minister Catherine McKenna. “Canada's infrastructure plan invests in thousands of projects, creates jobs across the country, and builds cleaner, more inclusive communities."

The city has said the building will be an important component of its capacity to deliver sustainable transit services to residents.

"As the fastest growing municipality in Ontario, transit is essential to our economic and community wellbeing, now and in the future,” said Mayor Gordon Krantz. “As a complete community, transit moves our residents to and from their work and school, to our businesses to shop, to social and health services, and to completing activities of daily living such as grocery shopping. This new facility will enable Milton to deliver a sustainable transit service to meet our future needs as a community."

Federal funding for the project is being provided through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada plan. The plan provides for investments of more than $180 billion over 12 years for public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes. Already, the federal government has invested more than $8 billion in over 2,700 infrastructure projects across Ontario under the plan.

The Government of Ontario is providing more than $3.2 million, and the Town of Milton is contributing more than $39 million of total projected costs over several years.