Four-laning of Highway 69 is now in jeopardy as the province has put a hold on land acquisition needed to complete the final 68 km of the project.

A source close to the project has told us the company involved has stopped land acquisition needed to complete Highway 69 and the Hamilton Light Rail Transit project because of a freeze put in place by the PC Government on all public spending.

It will stay in place until a line-by-line review is done on government spending.

When we asked the Ministry of Transportation about the new information, they referred us back to an email sent to us a few weeks ago from the Minister that said they are working on completing the 14 km currently under construction and then they would look towards the final 68 km’s.

We were then directed by the provincial Finance Minister’s office to the Office of the President of the Treasury Board as we were trying to find out a timeline of when the line-by-line review could be complete.

While they have responded, they have not provided the timeline since the email was sent on Monday.

We will update the story if new information comes.