Tory blocks subway speakers
Committee killed motion requesting review of Scarborough line extension planning
Mayor John Tory’s decision to block residents from speaking to an item about the controversial Scarborough subway is being called “shameful.”
On Monday, Tory’s executive committee voted to kill a motion from Councillor Josh Matlow asking for a judicial review of the problematic planning process that led to council backing a one- stop subway extension. That project is estimated to cost at least $3.35 billion based on very little design work.
Seven members of the public signed up to speak as part of the regular committee process but were denied the opportunity when executive members approved a motion from Councillor Michael Thompson to defer the item indefinitely at the start of the meeting.
Councillor Janet Davis, who is not a member of the committee, tried to interject as the vote was being taken — “But, there are speakers,” she said.
Councillors Paul Ainslie, Ana Bailao, Jon Burnside, Gary Crawford, Frank Di Giorgio, Mary-Margaret McMahon, Stephen Holyday, James Pasternak, David Shiner and Michael Thompson along with Tory voted to kill Matlow’s motion.
“Even (former mayor Rob) Ford would hold hours-long executive meetings to ensure every resident had a chance to speak, even as he was aggressively fighting against them,” Matlow told the Star after the vote. “While I’m not surprised that Mayor Tory still doesn’t want to allow the facts to come out about the one-stop Scarborough subway, and how misleading and inaccurate information led to its support, I find it shameful that the mayor would block residents’ basic right to speak to their elected representatives at executive committee. “What is mayor Tory afraid of?” Matlow’s motion requested council apply to the courts to set up an inquiry that would “investigate the information provided to council” about the subway and the light-rail alternative ahead of a 2016 vote.
To date, council has never seen a value-for-money comparison of those options while a draft analysis done by the provincial transit agency Metrolinx concluded the subway was “not a worthwhile use of money” compared to the LRT.
That report was never released.
A seven-stop LRT was fully funded by the province and was scheduled to be completed in 2019 before plans for its construction were cancelled by council in 2013 in favour of a subway.
Either option will replace the aging Scarborough RT, which has reached the end of its natural life and requires significant repairs to continue operating.
Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who tabled a motion in 2013 that broke council procedure and which led to the eventual cancellation of the LRT, heralded what he sees as good value for money.
“I think in time people will look at the Scarborough subway investment and say that was a good investment,” De Baeremaeker said.
Councillor Pasternak tweeted after the vote: “I wasn’t going to support a motion that would have been a $19 million McCarthy-style witch hunt.”
There is currently $3.56 billion dedicated to transit in Scarborough.
The subway eats up nearly all of those funds. Matlow and others have advocated for a net- work of LRTs that would provide more Scarborough residents with more access to rapid transit.
On Monday, the executive committee also approved moving ahead with further planning for an LRT line along Eglinton Ave. E. from Kennedy station and up to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus. That plan was meant to have a funding plan by now, but no such details were presented Monday.
City staff have now recommended incorporating an extension to Malvern, promised by Tory last week, which requires further planning.
Staff will report back with a business case and a funding plan in 2019.
That means voters will not know the updated costs for new transit in Scarborough or how the city proposes to pay for it before an election this October despite several promises the expanded network will get built. Estimated costs for the subway are not expected to be reported until January 2019, with construction yet to be approved.