Tory concerned provincial interference in transit will delay ongoing projects

A new city staff report with updates on several major transit projects in Toronto says many are very close to accepting bids and getting shovels in the ground.

A request for ‘expressions of interest’ is set to go out in only two to three months for the Relief Line, including major elements of the tunneling work. For the Scarborough subway extension, a request for ‘expressions of qualification’ is expected to be issued after the city council meeting in May.

With roughly $224 million already spent by the city on planning those projects, Mayor John Tory is raising the alarm about takeovers and interference by the Ford government.

“We’re at a crossroads,” he says. “The crossroads is either we keep driving forward or hit the brakes and reverse direction again or at least risk that.”

Tory compares building transit to building a house — if you start making design changes this late in the process, it will cause major delays.

Tory points to the one-stop Scarborough subway project which is already 30 per cent designed as an example.

Billions in federal funding have already been allocated and utilities are already being dug up and moved. Tunnel boring machines could start drilling as early as next year.

Tory says if the province takes that project over, starts from scratch and causes delays, he will have to oppose those changes. However, the mayor did not outline any specifics ways he or the city could do so.

Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Jeff Yurek says the province is not planning to start over on projects that are already underway.

“We’re going to utilize what has been done up-to-date,” he says. “We’re ready to work with the city in a new partnership, utilize what they’ve done so far and get the projects built,” adding that negotiations are still ongoing about how much the city might pay for new transit plans during the upload process.

Yurek said the province has some ideas and more will be revealed about the plans very soon. He did not go into further detail but said talks with the city have been productive.

“Talks under our terms of reference are going quite positive and they’ll continue to go forward,” he says. “Mayor Tory has been a great partner and we’re going to build this new partnership to build subways in the city of Toronto”

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With files from Mark McAllister