Battle shaping up over east Gardiner costs
City council divided over options as decision on tear-down looms in June
Abrewing Gardiner Expressway battle has left-leaning city councillors accusing conservative colleagues of wanting to blow a half-billion dollars to save a tiny minority of motorists a few minutes in travel time.
Torontonians, meanwhile, at public consultations downtown and in Scarborough split between the financial and public-space benefits of pulling down the entire 2.4-kilometre east Gardiner span, and the traffic benefits of paying more to keeping it in place to the Don Valley Parkway.
And then there are the councillors who think the motorists who benefit from the pricier option should fund it through a road toll.
The debate has many moving parts and anybody hoping for a speedy resolution might settle in for a honkfilled crawl.
“These are sad, sad wastes of money that throw into question the argument that these councillors are fiscal conservatives at all,” fumes Councillor Joe Mihevc of Mayor John Tory’s allies lining up behind the priciest “hybrid” option that would leave the Gardiner in place to the DVP and slow commutes marginally less than full removal.
Councillor Gord Perks notes a growing list of capital costs facing Toronto, totalling billions of dollars, and says: “It’s like Mayor (John) Tory is out Christmas shopping and he’s already maxed out his credit cards. Sooner or later somebody’s going to take it from him and cut it up.”
Tory campaigned on the hybrid option, which would see only the ramps east of the Don River pulled down, and also on improving commute times and holding property tax increases to the rate of inflation.
However, the mayor is “keeping an open mind while public consultations and the process unfolds,” says Tory spokeswoman Amanda Galbraith.
She notes a separate report on the economic impacts of both options has not yet been released. Toronto commutes are among the worst in North America and the city pegs the regional cost of gridlock at $6 billion.
A recently released environmental assessment says the “100-year” construction and maintenance costs of the hybrid option are $919 million — $458 million more than full removal and replacement with an eight-lane, at-grade boulevard between Jarvis St. and the DVP.
Computer modelling of the two options by city staff and Waterfront Toronto predicts removal would add, depending on the route, an extra two or three minutes to the average morning rush-hour Gardiner commute.
The east Gardiner is the lightest used stretch, carrying only 5,200 cars per hour during a typical peak period.
The small number of beneficiaries does not faze deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who is vowing to fight any efforts to remove the expressway west of the Don River.
“Toronto has a network of expressways and highways and to tear down infrastructure is short-sighted,” says the Don Valley councillor who, like many at a public consultation in Scarborough last week, said he believes a grade-level boulevard with stoplights would add more than two or three minutes.
Ahighway connection to the DVP is vital for commercial traffic, he adds.
“You can’t take a truckload of cement on a streetcar or a subway.”
As public works chair under former mayor Rob Ford, Minnan-Wong argued to maintain the entire elevated portion. Asked for his preference now, he says: “Hybrid or maintain.” Asked to choose, he says: “No comment.”
City staff and Waterfront Toronto argue that spending $864 million to maintain the whole span indefinitely is not a wise expense.
The full removal and hybrid options both would open up land for development, something key to Tory’s unproven plan to help finance his SmartTrack transit expansion by borrowing against future tax revenue increases in rapidly developing zones.
The hybrid option was first floated last year by developer First Gulf, which wants to build a large-scale office and retail development on 29 acres just east of the Gardiner-DVP junction. The city owns 20 adjacent acres and is eyeing the area for a SmartTrack station.
Tory’s office wants a decision at public works committee in May and a final vote at council in June.
Mihevc expects Tory to eventually get his way but says: “This is a multigenerational decision. This is not one meeting in June.”
Scarborough Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker told the Star he has to research the options but notes that, when he pushed for the pricier subway option over light rail in Scarborough, he identified a dedicated property tax hike and development charges as ways for the city to pay the premium.
“To those who want the more expensive option I say, ‘How do you pay for it?’ ” he says. “If ever there was an argument for a toll, this is it. If a senior who lives out by the zoo never takes the Gardiner, why should she help pay $500 million to make it faster? Maybe those who use it should pay.”
Councillor Paula Fletcher, whose ward includes the Gardiner-DVP junction, said she is keeping an open mind but supports looking at tolling the east Gardiner — an option that city staff have not put on the table.