Premier Doug Ford to fast-track construction of housing adjacent to new transit stations

Thestar.com
July 6, 2020
Robert Benzie

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives want to fast-track construction of thousands of homes -- including affordable housing -- at more than a dozen new transit stations to help Ontario rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Star has learned.

The Tories on Tuesday will introduce sweeping legislation designed to make it easier to build “transit-oriented communities” atop or adjacent to stations on the forthcoming Ontario Line, the Scarborough subway, and the proposed Eglinton West LRT and Yonge North subway extensions.

“This would just apply to new stations, not existing TTC stations,” said a senior government official, who, like others interviewed Sunday, spoke on background in order to discuss internal deliberations about Ford’s $28.5-billion transit expansion plan.

“The thinking is that we take the lands that we’d be purchasing for the transit stations and use these same lands for the construction of housing, including affordable housing,” a second official confirmed.

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Associate Transportation Minister Kinga Surma are expected to unveil the initiative on Monday before legislation is tabled the following day.

One potentially controversial aspect of the bill is a proposal to give transit projects an exemption from the “hearing of necessity” process. Such hearings, which are non-binding, can create red tape that leads to 12 months of construction delays.

That complements measures Mulroney announced in February’s Better Transit Faster Act that expanded the province’s power to expropriate land and reduce the need for environmental approvals.

A third government official says Tuesday’s legislation would also “give the province more flexibility to enter into joint ventures with developers and landowners.

“We would have individual agreements with each station project,” said the third official. “As you can imagine, some sites are going to have more potential than others.”

There are 15 proposed stations on the new Ontario Line, running from Ontario Place to the Ontario Science Centre; seven on the proposed LRT extension of the Eglinton Crosstown, the initial phase of which was supposed to be finished in September 2021, but has been delayed until 2022; three on the Scarborough subway; and a still-to-be-determined number on the Yonge North extension to Richmond Hill.

The province insists it will work with municipalities and not run roughshod over local planning in order to expedite construction.

“A priority for us is to get a collaborative approach operationalized with municipalities. We know affordable housing is very important to Mayor (John) Tory and others and this is a program that can help deliver that,” said the first official.

“We know people want the opportunity to work, play, and live near transit so they don’t have to rely upon having a car,” the official said. “We really want the benefits of maximizing our investment in transit.”

The hope, said the third official, is that the legislation will clear “past roadblocks” that hemmed in governments.

“This is really about getting the most from our transit investment. This is a major change from the way Toronto has built transit before.”

Throughout the pandemic, which has left Ontario in a state of emergency since March 17, Ford has insisted it is full steam ahead with new transit projects, even though ridership has plummeted as more people work from home.

With Ontario having lost 1.15 million jobs since the beginning of the outbreak, the premier is hopeful that big infrastructure investments can get many people back to work.

“These projects are mega-projects and will contribute to our economic recovery as we emerge from COVID-19,” said the second official Sunday.

The Tories hope their initiative will “allow for the development of more housing around transit in an integrated manner and put more job opportunities within the reach of more people.”

And it “would also save taxpayers money by having industry make direct, significant contributions to the cost of building transit for the benefit of communities, all transit riders, and Ontario taxpayers,” the official said.

In February, the government also announced a separate regulatory change to let Metrolinx, the arm’s-length provincial transit agency, move ahead with initial work on a project before an environmental assessment process is complete.

Those amendments, like the upcoming legislation, applied only to the Ontario Line and the other three priority projects.

At the time, Mulroney insisted the new powers would not be abused, and claimed the Eglinton Crosstown would have been completed in 2019 if such measures had been in place.

“We’re still going to respect property rights, negotiate in good faith, and treat people fairly. But we’re not going to spend 12 months getting permission to remove a tree,” she told reporters at the time.

The opposition New Democrats have said they approve of clearing barriers to building transit and affordable housing, but have expressed concern about the province overriding local planning.