tracks near the bridge in order to build a new entrance to Bayview Station of the new Light Rail System. The CTA gave the City of Ottawa two options: to either try to sell a portion of the rail line leading to the bridge or to restore the tracks so they can accommodate rail traffic within 12 months. In statements, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson asserted that, "We don't have the funds to put rail across to Quebec at this point". While there had been funding put aside for the work several years earlier, it has since been re-directed to a pedestrian bridge over the Rideau Canal. In April 2019 (a federal election year), the Federal Cabinet issued an Order In Council rescinding the Canadian Transportation Agency's decision, meaning that the City of Ottawa would no longer need to appeal the order to repair the rail link, also rejecting a petition from Moose Consortium Ltd., which wanted to use the bridge as part of a commuter rail project spanning the Ottawa River. The order in council dated April 5 stated that "the agency's decision went against national policy because it would force a railway company to invest in an "unused and non-profitable railway line," or discontinue it permanently", despite the Moose consortium indicating that it actively wanted to invest in this rail infrastructure. As of June 2019, the City of Gatineau's current design for its planned Société de transport de l'Outaouais LRT system, which would launch in 2028, would see it cross the bridge to link to Ottawa's O-Train system at Bayview Station. However, in September 2019, Ottawa Mayor Watson declared that the Prince of Wales bridge will “never” be used for interprovincial commuter rail, offering the explanation that it would be "far too congested to have so many people drop off at one of the busiest intersections in our LRT system", though without offering explanation as to why the recently-built station in question, which could have been designed to manage this commuter traffic, was effectively designed to block any future use of the railway. In December 2020, the City of Ottawa approved undertaking an Environmental Assessment study and the design of an interim multi-use pathway on the bridge. In July 2021, Ottawa City Council committed to spending $14 million to upgrade the bridge into a pedestrian bridge, and officially renamed the bridge to the Chief William Commanda Bridge, in honour