'Forgotten city' Scarborough to get its subway: Ford

Torontosun.com
August 19, 2020
Antonella Artuso

The Ontario government is stepping up to build the Scarborough subway, Premier Doug Ford says.

“There is no going back now,” Ford insisted Tuesday, as he announced three vetted companies will be allowed to bid on a contract to tunnel the $5.5-billion project.

The new line will extend from the existing Line 2 with new stations at Lawrence Ave. E. and McCowan Rd., Scarborough Town Centre and Sheppard Ave. E. and McCowan Rd.

Ford called Scarborough the “forgotten city” where folks pay taxes but don’t have much to show for it.

Ford’s controversial brother, Rob, the former mayor of Toronto who died in 2016, fought hard against a surface line, demanding the city build a subway.

Scarborough residents, who polling showed preferred a subway, have since made the Ford name a strong vote-getter in their communities.

“From day one in politics, you’ve always supported our family and you’ve always had our back and I can tell you we will always, always have yours,” Ford said. “My brother Rob, he absolutely loved the people of Scarborough… and no issue was more important to Rob than delivering rapid underground transit to the people of Scarborough.”

Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford’s “campaign-style stop” comes as parents would rather he focus on a stronger plan to return children to school safely in September.

Ford boasted that this project will be built more quickly because his government removed “roadblocks” to construction, but Schreiner said that so-called impediment was the Environmental Assessment process.

“In fact, while he was a city councillor, Ford opposed transit plans already in place,” Schreiner said in a statement. “Without the changes he pushed for, Scarborough would have more transit already built. And it would have cost much less.”