Mayor’s executive committee wants province to release subway upload advice

Thestar.com
March 25, 2019
Ben Spurr

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee voted Thursday to ask the Ontario government to publish advice it’s received from the province’s special adviser on its plan to take over Toronto’s subway.

Although the report debated by the committee was intended to provide councillors with an update on talks between the city and the province about the subway “upload,” much of the discussion centred around how little is still known about how the proposal would work.

Premier Doug Ford’s government has said the province plans to introduce legislation on the upload by June.

Key questions such as how much of the network the province would take over and how transit funding responsibilities would be split remain unanswered, even though Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have said the province plans to introduce legislation on the upload by June. The city is also set to launch public consultations on the proposal in the coming weeks.

In what he described as an effort to shed light on the plan, Councillor Michael Thompson introduced a motion asking for Queen’s Park “to release the report” provided to cabinet by Michael Lindsay, the expert Ford appointed in August to advise his government on the upload.

“I do think we all need more information to help us to be much more informed in terms what it is that we’re going to be dealing with, and the decisions that we make thereafter,” Thompson told the committee.

His motion passed unanimously. The committee also voted to approve spending $2 million to participate in the talks, an expense the city hopes to recoup from the province.

The decisions won’t be final until council votes on them at its scheduled meeting next week.

A spokesperson for Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek immediately shot down the idea of releasing Lindsay’s advice however, saying councillors had misunderstood the adviser’s work.

“The motion assumes that the special adviser was hired to write a report, when in fact, he provides ongoing advice to cabinet,” said Mike Winterburn in an email.

Winterburn pointed out that at least some of Lindsay’s work is already public. He said Lindsay collaborated with city officials to produce terms of reference for the upload discussions and that document “was released on the morning after it was signed.”

Tory and the councillors on his executive deferred any decision on a proposal to implement a public-relations campaign highlighting “the importance of retaining control of Toronto’s subways” that would include advertisements on the transit system.

The proposal was first introduced at council last month by councillors Joe Cressy and Josh Matlow, neither of whom are on the mayor’s executive. On Thursday the committee voted to send the proposal back to council next week with no recommendation.

Although the mayor and a majority of council have voted to register their opposition to the upload, Tory argued it would be premature to launch a campaign against the province’s plan before any firm proposal had been put forward.

“I can assure you that this is the beginning, not the end, and if we get to the stage … where we have an actual proposal on the table or an ultimatum that we’re either for or against, I’ll be the first one to say I’m supportive at that time of a campaign that either supports or opposes something,” he said.

The committee asked staff to come to council next week with a date for the first consultations.

Councillor Gord Perks said so little is known about the upload plan he didn’t see how the city could consult the public on it. He said he himself wouldn’t know how to respond if asked to weigh in.

“You might as well ask me to explain the mathematics behind Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle,” he said.

According to the terms of reference released last month, the city and province are reviewing three options, all of which could significantly alter the oversight of Toronto’s transit system.

The province’s preferred option is to take ownership of the subway network, while leaving day-to-day operations and fare collection to the TTC. Ford’s government argues this arrangement would ensure new transit is built faster because the province has greater financial powers to invest in infrastructure.

The two parties will also review the possibility of the province only taking ownership of new transit projects, or a “realignment of transit responsibilities” that could see changes to governance and funding but wouldn’t necessarily result in subway assets transferring to Queen’s Park.

City manager Chris Murray told reporters after the meeting that talks with the province so far had been “professional” and “cordial,” but the city had raised concerns about whether the province would need to own the subway in order to provide the benefits the PCs say the upload would deliver.

Murray noted the TTC recently released a report saying the subway has about $22 billion in capital needs over the next 15 years, most of which is unfunded, and said a primary concern of the city’s is securing sustainable transit funding.

“How is it that we can look after a system that’s in need of significant repair, as well as expand it?” he said.