Former minister Steven Del Duca: I wasn’t meddling, I was building transit

TheStar.com
December 10, 2018
Steven Del Duca

From 2014 to 2018, I served as Ontario’s Minister of Transportation. I used that time to push hard to build a network of transit and roads that would help relieve the brutal gridlock that too many residents in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area grapple with every single day.

I wasn’t one to simply talk, study, debate and delay. I have lived here my whole life, and as far as I’m concerned too many politicians have done too much of that for too long.

I didn’t mind taking flak, including from the Auditor General this past week and from the media, for making tough decisions because that’s what political leaders sign up for when they run for office. And I never shied away from fighting for what I believed in and standing up for those who simply want the government to be on their side.

In the spring of 2016, our government announced we’d build new GO stations as part of our plan to deliver two-way, all-day, electrified GO service across most of the network. Metrolinx, the arms-length transit planning agency, made recommendations to me about the new stations.

I accepted their advice to build 10 stations, and I advised them we would also be approving a station at Lawrence East in Scarborough and at Kirby in Vaughan. In addition, I told them more analysis was needed around a proposed Park Lawn station in southern Etobicoke.

My reasoning was simple. I felt their original analysis didn’t take into account the explosive population growth planned in Vaughan and Etobicoke, and also didn’t reflect that Lawrence East was a key part of Toronto’s badly-needed transit network for Scarborough.

I am a very strong believer in the requirement for transparent spending of taxpayers’ money, but I also know that we desperately need to build transit that makes sense for the future and we can’t afford to waste any more time.

In our system, agencies like Metrolinx give important advice to government, but it’s the government’s responsibility to make the final decision about investing public money.

Doing so is neither meddling nor interfering. It’s what we are elected to do.

Yes, those in office must be accountable to the people of the province, and the legislative assembly, the media and officers of the legislature all have a role to play with respect to holding us to account for our decisions.

But I reject the notion that ministers should be cowed into abdicating their responsibility because they can’t stand the heat of the political arena, or because they would prefer to take the easy way out.

Earlier this year, at my direction, Metrolinx completed an independent review of how the stations were approved, and that report has been posted on its website since March.

This time, using more accurate population information and updated service concepts, they concluded that Lawrence East and Park Lawn performed strongly, and Kirby earned a particularly impressive rating.

I made the right call, and I would do it again.

It’s also worth noting, that without political leadership, none of the following transit initiatives would have gotten off the ground:

GO Regional Express Rail, the Eglinton Crosstown, the TTC’s Line 1 Extension, LRTs along Finch, in Mississauga and in Hamilton. There would be no GO Bus service to Cambridge or Brantford and plans to extend GO trains to Bowmanville and Niagara would have never seen the light of day.

The Relief Line and the Yonge North extension would not have been advanced with significant planning dollars. The provincial gas tax program would not have been doubled, transferring between GO and the TTC would still require two separate full fares, and users of the Union-Pearson Express could very well still be paying $27 each time they hop on the train.

Right now, experts and editorialists say the Relief Line is this region’s transit priority.

But here’s the thing: the initial economic assessment done by Toronto for this project -- which is the exact same analytical tool that has been used by critics of the decision to build GO stations at Lawrence East and Kirby -- gives it a negative score.

Tell that to a commuter standing on a crowded platform at Yonge and Bloor, watching jam-packed trains go by, just waiting to squeeze on to get to their destination, often much later than they ever imagined.

They wouldn’t believe it and they wouldn’t accept it.

They would just demand that their elected officials summon the courage to get on with getting it built.

And they would be right.