Kathleen Wynne promises full provincial funding for Yonge North subway extension
'We need to keep building:' Liberal leader

YorkRegion.com
May 30, 2018
Tim Kelly

With the skyline of Thornhill’s Yonge Street as her backdrop, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne has pledged to provide the full provincial portion of funding for the Yonge north subway extension — provided her government is re-elected June 7.

Wynne, standing with Liberal candidates Reza Moridi of Richmond Hill, Amanda Yeung Collucci of Markham-Unionville, Sabi Ahsan of Thornhill and Naheed Yaqubian of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, as well as Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti and Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow, said a Liberal government would fully back the Yonge north subway extension from its current end point at Finch subway station to Richmond Hill centre.

She also promised to provide the provincial funding portion for the downtown relief line and suggested her counterparts, NDP leader Andrea Horwath and PC leader Doug Ford, would not commit to do the same.

"We need to keep building," Wynne said. "The Yonge North subway extension is badly needed. It is a very important next step.

"We are committed to the full provincial share of both the Yonge north subway extension and the downtown relief line, but that could be at risk on June 7,” she said.

Wynne said the NDP rejected private-public partnerships to build large public projects, which she said will put transit projects at risk in Ontario.

She accused Doug Ford of “doing a lot of yelling about subways at City Hall (where he served as a Toronto councillor from 2010-14), no building, cut the TTC’s funding, cut and cancelled bus routes, did not build a thing, did not put a shovel in the ground.”

Asked later about why the Liberals, who have been in power since 2003, did not start working on the Yonge north subway extension until recently, Wynne said her party has committed $55 million to the extension for planning and design work and $150 million to the downtown relief line.

“What we’re building is a network. We can’t build that northern portion until we have a way to make the southern portion more viable,” Wynne said, arguing the “congestion would be too great … These two pieces work together.”