More than $2 billion in capital projects unfunded: TTC

Projects without funding in 10-year plan include purchase of hundreds of new vehicles, signal enhancements, and fire-ventilation upgrades.

Thestar.com
Sept. 25, 2017
By Ben Spurr

The TTC has more than $2 billion worth of unfunded projects in its long-term capital plan, and the agency warns if a solution isn't soon found, the cash crunch will affect service.

According to a new report on the TTC's 10-year capital budget, over the next decade the transit agency needs to spend $9.24 billion on work that includes state-of-good-repair maintenance, infrastructure upgrades and new vehicles.

Projects totalling $2.27 billion have been designated as not funded.

An additional $420 million worth of work has been identified as "capacity-to-spend" reductions, which means the TTC doesn't expect to be able to spend the full amount budgeted for certain projects, mostly for logistical reasons.

The 10-year capital plan doesn't include expansion projects such as the Scarborough subway extension.

TTC CEO Andy Byford acknowledged that the shortfall sounds "scary," but he asserted the transit agency is "not in a bad place."

He said the TTC received "clear, unambiguous" direction from the city not to increase TTC spending beyond council's self-imposed debt-ceiling, which limits the amount the city can borrow to fund long-term projects.

That meant that the TTC had to prioritize some projects over others. Byford said that, while he would welcome additional funding, for the moment, the capital plan succeeds at "protecting things that we feel are most important."

The report will be debated by the transit agency's budget committee on Tuesday. The list of unfunded projects includes $111.61 million for work related to installing an automatic train-control signalling system on Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth), $162.14 million for upgrades to fire ventilation systems and $1.93 billion for the purchase of hundreds of new buses, subway cars and streetcars that will be needed.

The TTC is also $69.78 million short on plans to increase the capacity of its subway infrastructure to handle more customers.

"A long term funding strategy needs to be developed with the city by 2020 to avoid potential service impact(s) associated with not proceeding with these required capital investments," warns the report, prepared by agency finance staff.

Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21 St. Paul's), who sits on the TTC board, said "not funding the full capital program simply will not do."

He called on other levels of government to help bridge the gap.

"Public transit is a life blood of our city," he said. "So we need the partnership of the provincial and federal government to make sure that it is fully funded . . . (in the awareness) that Toronto is growing at a rapid global pace."

Together the provincial and federal governments account for close to $3 billion in funding under the 10-year capital plan, or just less than one-third of the agency's total needs.

Even after deferring some projects to future years, the TTC's 10-year plan would still breach the city's debt-ceiling by about $97 million.

The relatively small figure is related to a portion of the cost of a new subway maintenance-and-storage facility near Kipling station. The TTC is working with city finance staff to find funding for the project.

Byford said that, while he's confident the TTC's capital plan isn't on perilous financial footing, he'd like to see substantial changes to the current budget process; instead of the TTC seeking council approval for its spending each year, he'd like to set multi-year financial plans that guarantee long-term funding.

"It's difficult to run a multi-billion-dollar organization not knowing year-on-year what your budget is going to be," he said.

"It needs to be way more certain than that."