Winnipeg Manitoba - Winnipeg mayoral candidate Shaun Loney has promised to revive dormant plans to move the Canadian Pacific Railway's yards out of the city, a long-held dream of urbanist politicians such as rival candidate Robert Falcon Ouellette and former Manitoba premier Greg Selinger.
 
Minutes before a Tuesday evening campaign launch at Old Market Square, Loney promised to resuscitate the railyard relocation conversation that's been relatively quiet since 2016, when the Progressive Conservative government cancelled a study initiated by its NDP predecessor.
 
Loney said if he's elected mayor in October, he would bring all three levels of government together with the railway companies to see the value of moving the yards out of the city and redeveloping the 80 hectare site.
 
"In Winnipeg right now, part of why we're struggling is we're spending so much money extending services into new neighbourhoods. The type of city we all want is going to be more dense," Loney said.
 
During his first run for mayor in 2014, Ouellette promised to move the rail yards out of Winnipeg and claimed it would cost $75 million to accomplish the task.
 
Industry analysts pegged the actual cost at closer to several billion dollars, primarily because the move would require the construction of new rail bridges at a site just outside the city.
 
Ouellette's campaign did not immediately respond to requests Tuesday for comment about Loney's pledge.
 
In 2016, Selinger's NDP government hired former Quebec premier Jean Charest, now a federal Conservative Party leadership candidate, to study the idea.
 
The NDP government spent $400,000 on Charest's rail relocation study before Pallister's PC government was elected and cancelled the plan.
 
Loney said Winnipeg has to get past the cost of the idea and consider the benefits.
 
"This is exactly the problem in Winnipeg, we're asking the wrong questions," he said.
 
"Moving them has tremendous financial benefits to all three levels of government."
 
Loney also promised Tuesday to create a single fare system for Winnipeg Transit, car share and bike share programs, and ride-hailing services.
 
He said he would explain both promises in greater detail later in the campaign.
 
Bartley Kives.