TORONTO – Council is trying to decide once and for between subways and light rail in Toronto’s east-end.
Debate ongoing in council chambers Tuesday is meant to resolve what’s become a byelection issue after the provincial Liberals reversed course, saying they’d support a Scarborough subway if that’s what Toronto wants.
There’s already provincial money set aside for light rail in Scarborough. There’s still no plan to pay for a subway, which would cost an extra $500-million for a faster, shorter route and fewer stations.
Mayor Rob Ford said last week he would be willing to support a modest tax increase to fund the subway plan but still refuses to implement any new fees or levies.
Ford said he needs all the $1.8 billion the governing Liberals had originally pledged for a light rail project in Scarborough, as well as money from the federal government, for the subway extension.
The mayor has floated a 0.25 per cent increase to property taxes as one means of paying for the subway – a number criticized as being too low to make a significant difference. His brother, Councillor Doug Ford, said the increase works out to over one per cent over four years and is not the only way of paying for the subway.
The city’s also looking into development charges, Doug said – fees charged to developers that go towards municipal services.
“We’re looking at the savings, otherwise a surplus, we can take some money from that,” Ford said.
The Etobicoke councillor also suggested the city get some of the $53 billion in infrastructure funding that the Harper government set aside in the 2014 federal budget.
READ MORE: Comparing subways and LRTs in Scarborough
But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, usually a Ford ally, criticized the push for a subway as a “vote-buying exercise.” Any self-proclaimed fiscal-conservative who voted for it, he said, would have to “turn in their membership cards.”
City staff revealed Tuesday that if council decides to support a subway rather than LRT, some of the city’s other transit priorities, including the Don Mills LRT and the downtown relief line, could be affected.
A Scarborough subway could increase pressure on the already over-stuffed Yonge-University-Spadina line, TTC CEO Andy Byford said. This, in turn, would make the delayed downtown relief line more urgently needed.
Toronto Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat said at city hall Tuesday that an LRT through Scarborough is “more desirable” than a subway.
The provincial government has been pushing the city to make a definitive decision on where the transit money should go: light rail or subway.
After previously agreeing to support LRTs, council flip-flopped in May by voting to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway line instead.
Last month Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of transit, asked the city to clarify its decision once and for all or risk putting the project in limbo.
-With files from The Canadian Press
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