The province is facing the prospect of having to pay to run two separate light rail lines in Toronto as financial talks between the city and Queen’s Park continue to grind.
New documents obtained by Global News set out that the City of Toronto may refuse to run either the Eglinton Crosstown or Finch West LRTs unless the Ford government coughs up new funding for the struggling municipality.
The city’s threat leaves the province with few options to ensure transit projects that it has spent billions of dollars to build will carry passengers.
“The province might have to consider different delivery options, including assuming operations of the ECLRT,” the internal government documents state.
The provincial documents suggest Ford government officials are facing a difficult decision — whether they can call Toronto’s bluff on its threat.
Another option would be to bring the routes under provincial control, operating them from Queen’s Park or under Metrolinx, instead of the TTC running them as local transit lines.
A provincial spokesperson said both levels of government share a desire to see the two lines open as quickly as possible.
“It is critical that we work together with the city to deliver on priority transit projects like the Finch West and Eglinton Crosstown LRT for the thousands of commuters who will rely on it each and every day,” they said.
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The spokesperson also told Global News a working group of City of Toronto and the Government of Ontario officials is “looking at solutions that support our shared objective of getting the LRT lines open as soon as possible.”
Negotiations over transit funding began in 2018 when the Ford government tried to take control of the subway network from local officials.
That plan — a key priority included in the transport minister’s 2018 mandate letter — was eventually abandoned in negotiations that created the Ontario Line and scrapped Toronto’s long-planned Relief Line.
The process led to a new agreement between the city and province that went into effect in 2021, the documents explain.
As part of that deal, Toronto was to be responsible for the “operating and regular maintenance” costs of the Eglinton LRT. The TTC would also be able to set and keep fares, while the province would help pay for the more expensive lifecycle maintenance.
The documents obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws, however, say city officials recently changed their tune. They reportedly paused negotiations with the province over transit funding and demanded a “permanent operating subsidy” for public transit in the city.
A report from the City of Toronto at the end of the summer reflected consideration to refuse running the Eglinton or Finch LRT as one of 10 potential options for the city to dig itself out of a 10-year, $46.5 billion hole.
The report suggests the city could reduce its costs through the “indefinite deferral of the operation of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Finch West LRT (Lines 5 and 6) upon construction completion, and pending any new funding arrangement or fiscal framework with the province that better meets the City’s transit needs.”
The report and its recommendations are referenced in the provincial documents.
The annual cost of running both the Eglinton and Finch lines was pegged at around $106 million in the TTC’s 2023 budget report.
The threat of leaving two key transit lines idle is one that language in the documents suggests provincial officials are taking seriously.
“Council will also consider indefinite deferral of the operation of the FWLRT pending any new funding arrangement or fiscal framework with the Province that better meets the City’s transit needs,” say bureaucrats at the Ministry of Transportation.
In a line that mirrors advice over the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, they added: “If there is not a new intergovernmental funding arrangement for transit, the province might have to consider different delivery options, including assuming operations of the FWLRT.”
Neither the Finch or Eglinton lines are expected to open imminently.
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is still without an opening date, something provincial officials have refused to disclose. Construction is still not complete as the consortium building the line battles to fix a slew of issues discovered during final testing.
The Finch West LRT is expected to enter service in 2024.
A table of provincial and municipal representatives is also negotiating a broad, new financial relationship between the two governments. Among those negotiations, the city has suggested, is for the province to take control of the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway.
“With Toronto projecting ongoing operating and capital budget pressures over the next decade, the province and the city have established a working group to make recommendations to improve the long-term stability and sustainability of Toronto’s finances,” the provincial spokesperson said.
A municipal spokesperson said talks were ongoing and an update would be provided to Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford by the end of November.
Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Finch LRT would enter service in 2025, it will actually open in 2024.
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