Councillors suggest private ownership of Gardiner Expressway, Don Valley Parkway

TORONTO – Some city councillors are looking at the possibility of the private sector operating and maintaining the Gardiner Expressway.

The city’s budget committee has asked staff to study selling the expressway to a private entity as well as using tolls to pay for much-needed repairs.

Global News recently unveiled hundreds of documents detailing disrepair and the possibility of “punch-throughs” – a vehicle putting a hole in the bridge deck – in various locations across the Gardiner.

That investigation spurred discussion at city hall about the future of the aging expressway.

The proposed 2013-2021 budget currently allocates $505 million for repairs of the Gardiner over the next eight years.

But Coun. Adam Vaughan, who initiated Monday’s amendment to the budget, thinks the city should look at saving that money by utilizing private investors.

“It would secure funding for the half-billion worth of repairs that need to be done,” Vaughan said. “The immediate benefit would be a significant windfall to the city.”

Selling both the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway could generate up to $8 billion, Vaughan said.

While the public-private partnership would immediately add billions to the city’s revenue, Vaughan said it would also help secure additional funding for transit from the federal government.

Proceeds from the sale of the Gardiner could go to funding transit in the city of Toronto, Vaughan said, adding that the highway is a good investment.

“At the end of the day, it generates a massive amount of capital in the billions to build new transit,” Vaughan said.

While the motion to begin the process of privatizing either the Gardiner or the Don Valley Parkway won’t come before city council until 2013, Vaughan says he has already heard rumblings from several companies that may be interested in investing in the Gardiner.

“I’ve had conversations with people who manage large pension funds and also manage large infrastructure funds,” Vaughan said, saying they see it as a good investment.

“There are five or six companies capable of doing this and they are already looking at it as a possibility.”

However not all councillors look at privatizing infrastructure as a good idea.

“I’m not inclined to support privatization of public infrastructure,” Coun. Janet Davis said. “There’s certain things that should be maintained and controlled by the public. And significant roads, water and transit should all be funded and operated publicly.”

While Davis is not inclined to support selling public infrastructure, she thinks the city staff “should add it to the list of options” that would be included in the Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Gardiner Expressway.

A previous EA, started in 2008, was supposed to look at several options for the Gardiner. However that EA was cancelled in 2010 and Davis argues that the analysis should continue.

“I resent being put into the position we’re in at this point, which is being asked to spend half a billion dollars without complete information,” Davis said.

The cost of repairing the Gardiner is prohibitive, Davis is quick to admit, but thinks that the cost of the Gardiner should be uploaded to the provincial government.

“This is an incredible cost-burden on the city. I think we should be uploading it back to the provincial government,” Davis said. “It just sucks up our money. We get nothing for infrastructure from the provincial and federal government. It’s a provincial highway from my perspective.”