Group urges city to fight subway upload plan

Defend Toronto does not want province to own TTC system

“There has been no public debate because we haven’t had the chance to do that.” JOHN SEWELL FOUNDER OF DEFEND TORONTO

A local advocacy group is calling on the city to oppose Premier Doug Ford’s plan to have the province take ownership of the TTC’s subways, saying the process is unnecessarily hasty.

Last week, Mayor John Tory recommended the city co-operate with the province’s request for a TTC information-sharing agreement, according to correspondence obtain by the Star.

The province asked for the city’s written consent to proceed with the joint discovery process by Dec. 13.

Defend Toronto, an organization founded by former mayor John Sewell to contend with the province’s proposals for the city, sent a letter to the mayor and councillors on Wednesday asking the city to reject the province’s plan and prepare to take legal action if the province makes an “attempt to assume control of the subway.”

“I think the big thing we want from city council is to say to the province, ‘We want to keep the subway system, and we don’t want you to own it,’” Sewell said in an interview.

In the letter, Defend Toronto asked that council adopt 10 motions to curb the province’s plan ahead of a meeting on Dec. 13 where the information-sharing agreement will be discussed.

Those motions include requesting the province demonstrate how taking ownership of the subway is necessary to achieve its goals on improving the service.

“There has been no public debate because we haven’t had the chance to do that,” Sewell told the Star, noting the province has asked for a decision while the newly sworn-in council is barely up and running.

Sewell said the province should not be concerned with matters of municipal transportation.

With MPPs residing far outside of Toronto, he said those members would not be able to weigh in on the city’s transportation needs.

“They don’t have any commitment to the subway,” Sewell said. “If you live up in Thunder Bay, why do you want to see your tax dollars go to the Toronto subway system? You don’t. So if they own it, they get to make all those decisions and they don’t have a great interest in it.”

Sewell said his organization has not received any responses from council members.

But he said that Defend Toronto intends on speaking with councillors over the next few weeks.

At a press conference at city hall Friday, Tory defended his position, saying sharing information with the province should not be interpreted “as going along with uploading.”

He argued the exercise would allow the city to better understand the province’s intentions as well as give the municipal government a voice in any final decision.

“My challenge at the moment is I don’t know what uploading means. And I think you have to go to the table to find that out,” Tory said.