Toronto council rejects attempt to get more information about returning to the Scarborough LRT plan

Thestar.com
March 11, 2021
Jennifer Pagliaro

It’s been 2,710 days since Toronto city council voted to kill the only fully funded rapid transit plan for Scarborough, and Josh Matlow sounds tired.

The Ward 12 (Toronto-St. Paul’s) councillor, who has led what some have seen as a quixotic push to build a network of LRTs in the eastern suburb, was again voted down by council on Wednesday evening.

Council voted 15 to 7 to scrap his attempt at getting more information about returning to the LRT plan to replace the aging Scarborough RT.

Matlow’s motion came after the TTC reported in February that commuters would be subject to at least seven years of shuttle buses based on the necessary closure of the SRT in 2023.

A three-stop subway plan, resurrected by Premier Doug Ford, is still not fully funded. If built as planned, the current schedule for completion is 2030.

“This isn’t a transit debate anymore,” Matlow told the Star just ahead of the vote. He directed his comments to his colleagues. “You know what the outcome is: That Scarborough residents get screwed. So given that knowledge are you now ready to do the right thing?”

The debate over Scarborough transit took a significant turn on Oct. 8, 2013, when a majority of council members under Mayor Rob Ford’s administration voted to scrap a seven-stop LRT that was fully funded by the provincial government in favour of a more expensive three-stop subway the city couldn’t yet afford, and for which planning justification was lacking.

Taxes for every Toronto homeowner were raised to cover the difference.

After Mayor John Tory took office, he pushed for a one-stop alternative that was hoped to be cheaper as costs for a three-stop exceeded the available funds.

But after Premier Ford, previously a city councillor in favour of the subway, took office, he brought back the three-stop subway and superseded city plans

Matlow described his feelings ahead of Wednesday’s decision as simply “sadness.”

Sadness, he said, for the lack of information that has been provided to council and members of the public, for councillors he said who know what the right decision is and for commuters.

Coun. Paul Ainslie, who seconded the motion and who is the only Scarborough-area councillor to support subway alternatives, challenged what he said was “rhetoric” from his colleagues who wrongly claimed Wednesday the subway plan was essentially ready to go.

“We’re on a merry-go-round in Scarborough and part of that merry-go-round exists because we never get accurate information,” he said.

The failed motion also asked for the release of consultants’ reports on the life extension of the SRT -- which have only been provided largely redacted to the Star through a Freedom of Information request.

“What I would like to see is that I don’t have to learn what’s happening about Scarborough transit because a reporter filed an FOI and within the FOI material that they write an article on there’s a whole lot of black lines,” said Ainslie (Ward 24 Scarborough-Guildwood).

Other councillors challenged their subway-supporting colleagues for their responsibility for the years of buses to come.

“It’s time for the advocates for these fantasy transit systems to own up to it,” said Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park).

“The decade of people riding buses in Scarborough is your fault. You brought this on.”

A motion from Coun. Michael Thompson (Ward 21 Scarborough Centre) asked staff to only look at bus rapid transit to replace the SRT, removing any request to look at the LRT. He claimed it was never promised the SRT would be operational until the subway was completed.

Most of council agreed with him, including Tory.

“That decision has been made,” Tory said of the subway-versus-LRT debate, saying reporting back on its feasibility was not a good use of staff time.

On Wednesday, council also voted to approve new modular housing sites to provide supportive housing -- semi-permanent spaces that can be quickly designed and lifted into place that provide health and social services to the residents who were recently homeless.