Weeks after its own deadline, PC government won’t say whether it’s done plans for Ontario Line

Thestar.com
July 19, 2019
Ben Spurr

The Ontario Progressive Conservative government is refusing to say whether it has finalized initial plans for its most important transit project, three weeks after a self-imposed deadline for completing the work has passed.

On June 3, then infrastructure minister Monte McNaughton pledged the government would submit initial business cases for the Ontario Line and other priority projects under Premier Doug Ford’s proposed $28.5-billion transit expansion “in the second half of June.”

With the end-of-month deadline now passed, the province would not give a yes or no answer about whether it has completed a business case for the Ontario Line, the $10.9-billion rail line that would run through the heart of Toronto and is the centrepiece of Ford’s plan.

“Ontario is actively providing project information to the federal government. That’s why, given that discussions are ongoing with our partners, we will not negotiate the details of critical infrastructure projects in the media,” Barbara Mottram, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, said in an email last week.

In a brief phone interview Thursday, Mottram reiterated the government’s position that “we’re continuing to work with our partners.”

Pressed to clarify her statement, in a followup email Mottram described the business case for the Ontario Line as “a living document” that “is continuously being informed by the experts at Metrolinx who are consulting with our partners and transit authorities.”

McNaughton made the commitment to submit the business cases by the end of June on the same day he and another provincial minister held a press conference to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for not moving fast enough to fund Ford’s transit plans.

The federal Liberals said at the time Ontario hadn’t provided enough information about the projects for Ottawa to commit funding.

Pierre-Yves Bourque, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Canada, said Thursday the federal government hasn’t received a business case for the Ontario Line or any of the three other transit projects that are a part of Ford’s new plan.

“In fact, what we have received so far for these projects is a two-page document, which is not sufficient to make (a) clear analysis of these projects,” Bourque said in a statement.

“So far, what the Ford government has made looks more like a presentation than a plan.”

The two levels of government continue to trade blame over who is responsible for delaying delivery of Toronto transit projects, with both claiming last week that speedy approval could help avoid 550 proposed layoffs at Bombardier’s Thunder Bay, Ont. railcar factory.

A federal official, who spoke on background because he wasn’t authorized to talk about projects under review, said the government has received business cases for Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack stations program, as well as capacity improvements at Bloor-Yonge station. Council has prioritized those projects for federal funding with the province’s support, but neither of them were part of the plan Ford announced in April.

In addition to the Ontario Line, the plan Ford unveiled in April included a three-stop Scarborough subway extension, an extension of the TTC’s Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina) subway to Richmond Hill and the Eglinton West LRT.

The Ontario Line would replace council-approved plans for the relief line subway, which was designed to take pressure off the TTC’s overcrowded Line 1. The Ford government’s version would be about twice as long as the relief line and run for about 15 kilometres between Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre.

The Progressive Conservatives say the province can build the line faster and at less cost than a conventional subway by using smaller trains and running the tracks above ground for at least part of the route. The province has said the Ontario Line could open by 2027, a date some experts have warned is unrealistic.

Until plans are finalized, key details will remain unknown, including the line’s exact route, and whether it can be built according to the province’s proposed budget and timeline.

Toronto officials have so far received few details of the Ontario Line plan. In an email, city spokesperson Brad Ross said that in early July, Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the GTHA, “presented a high-level summary on the Ontario Line initial business” but “the city and TTC have been informed by Metrolinx that the initial business case is still being developed and finalized.”

Since Ford announced his transit plan, his government has passed legislation to take control of new Toronto transit projects and the TTC has stopped work on any planning for the relief line that couldn’t also be used for the Ontario Line.

Ontario NDP transit critic Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale) noted that the city’s version of the relief line had undergone years of study and an environmental assessment. City staff had said construction on early works for the $7.2-billion line could have started next year, with completion scheduled for as early as 2029.

“This is another example of how Doug Ford is delaying transit expansion,” Bell said.

“By scrapping the transit plans that were already in the works to come up with their own new grand plans, we have effectively moved transit planning backwards.”