Speaking truth to power on transit-project white elephants
Political pandering at all government levels often eclipses fact-based decisions
Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory are spending their summer confident they’ve bought thousands of future votes with their highly questionable support of unnecessary GO stations and the one-stop Scarborough subway.
While we’re preoccupied with U.S. President Donald Trump’s tantrums, this newspaper and a determined local action group are pushing back against these transit white elephants. The latest move of Scarborough Transit Action is asking the Ontario auditor general to look into “the use of non-evidence-based decisionmaking” in the approval of vote-chasing transit projects.
Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk is being asked to investigate the planned construction of the Kirby and Lawrence East GO stations and the Scarborough subway. Lysyk is responsible for insuring val- ue for money in provincial spending.
The opposition Tories have also asked Lysyk to do a “full value for money audit” of the two stations.
A Metrolinx business case analysis revealed that neither station should be built for another 10 years. Both stations were too expensive, wouldn’t attract enough riders and could increase car use.
Earlier this week, the Star’s Ben Spurr revealed the disturbing details of how Metrolinx was pressured by the provincial transportation ministry to approve the $100-million Kirby GO station (in the minister’s riding) and $23-million Lawrence East GO station, which has been labelled part of Tory’s SmartTrack plan. Both were approved, proving once again that too many transit decisions in Toronto are based on political whim.
The Scarborough subway is another example of politics trumping sound transit planning. Metrolinx did a business case analysis on the $3.35-billion Scarborough subway. They recommended replacing the aging RT with a modern LRT and concluded a subway was “not a worthwhile use of money.”
Ignoring this analysis, Wynne committed $1.8 billion to a subway — the amount she was prepared to pay for a seven-stop LRT. The federal government also committed $660 million to this “vanity” subway without the benefit of a business case.
Mayor Tory, who says he’s committed to “fact-based transparent decisionmaking,” has stubbornly held to the subway option without initiating a valuefor-money review. This, despite a Toronto expert panel and the Pembina Institute finding the LRT was superior to a subway in almost every way.
The action group asked the Ontario auditor general “to investigate whether a comprehensive analysis” should be carried out to compare the one-stop $3.35-billion subway with the previously proposed 24-stop Scarborough LRT network (at roughly the same cost).
Last week the action group also showed how unaware people are of the reduction in service that a one-stop subway will bring. A survey of riders using the existing LRT Lawrence station showed 85 per cent didn’t know the station will disappear. No doubt riders will be angry when they find the three other LRT stations they use will also disappear.
Why did Toronto city council vote for a one-stop subway over a more affordable and accessible seven-stop LRT? One reason may have been a misleading memo sent by TTC CEO Andy Byford to city council members before the vote.
He escalated the cost of the LRT to $2.7 billion by pushing forward its completion date to 2026, the completion date for a subway. When the LRT is costed at its anticipated completion date of 2020, it remains $1.8 billion.
Byford claims his controversial memo was not requested by the mayor or anyone else — “just anticipating this issue would be raised.” However, when questioned about it during the subway debate, he said the TTC was “asked to provide” the misleading memo. Byford says he cannot remember who asked him.
Byford’s conduct is being examined by the city’s auditor general at the urging of Scarborough Transit Action. They’ve been waiting for an answer since February.
This situation is unconscionable on several levels. First, we have massive transit projects like the Scarborough subway being approved without any city or federal analysis to determine value for money. Second, when a business case analysis is available and recommends against funding, political pandering at all government levels often eclipses fact-based decisions.
Trudeau, Wynne and Tory are on a path to wasting $1.7 billion of taxpayer money on an unneeded subway and unnecessary GO stations. The only entities left speaking transit truth to power are this newspaper and Scarborough Transit Action.
We deserve much better from our appointed and elected leaders.