Staff questioned mayor’s transit plan in wake of COVID-19, emails show

City staff wanted to be able to address concerns that the $1.46 billion required for SmartTrack would be better spent on other transit priorities.

Thestar.com
Feb. 3, 2022
Ben Spurr

City of Toronto staff anticipated that a scaled-back version of the mayor’s transit plan unveiled last year could be criticized as an unwise use of money during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to internal emails.

The documents, which the Star obtained through a freedom of information request, show bureaucrats wanted to be able to address concerns that the $1.46 billion required for Mayor John Tory’s updated SmartTrack proposal would be better spent on other transit priorities, particularly in light of the economic challenges and social inequality Toronto was confronting during the coronavirus crisis.

Experts say those concerns were well-founded, and other transit projects that have taken a back seat to the mayor’s plan would better serve marginalized Torontonians hardest hit by COVID-19.

Staff recommended the revised, five-station version of SmartTrack in a January 2021 report to council. That was down from the six SmartTrack stops council had approved in 2018, and far fewer than the 22-station proposal Tory originally pitched while running for mayor in 2014. Although the updated version had fewer stations than the plan approved three years earlier, the cost remained unchanged at $1.46 billion.

Months before releasing the report, the city planning division prepared a presentation about the updated program.

According to the emails the Star obtained, after reviewing a draft of the presentation, deputy city manager Tracey Cook told staff on Oct. 20, 2020 they needed to address the question of whether SmartTrack is “still worth the full investment … given what we are currently facing, notably fiscal and equity impacts, as exacerbated by Covid.”

She wrote that the answer might be yes for the project as a whole, but some stations “may not be the best spend given our city-wide needs.”

Cook specifically cited the cost of the SmartTrack stop at East Harbour, which the emails suggest was more than $500 million. She asked staff to address the question of whether that money “may meet more City objectives” if it were “invested in other transit projects/sites.”

The cost of individual SmartTrack stations hasn’t been publicly disclosed. The city declined to confirm the $500 million figure for the East Harbour stop, which would be at an employment hub planned near Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue, telling the Star the cost is confidential.

Cook told the Star her comments in the October 2020 email show her doing her due diligence. She said that as the senior staff member responsible for the presentation, she asked city planners questions about SmartTrack in order “to challenge assumptions, ensure they were still relevant, and to be satisfied with the recommendation that was being made to council.”

In their final report, staff told council SmartTrack “represents a significant investment to improve transportation choices within Toronto.”

The emails show staff discussed comparing SmartTrack with the proposed Eglinton East LRT to gauge the equity impacts of the mayor’s plan. It’s not clear if staff ever conducted that analysis.

But after being contacted by the Star, Steven Farber, an associate professor at University of Toronto Scarborough who researches social outcomes of transportation projects, examined the respective populations that would be served by SmartTrack and the first phase of the LRT, which would run between Kennedy Station and UTSC in Scarborough.

Farber’s analysis, which he conducted with University of Toronto post-doctoral fellow Willem Klumpenhouwer, showed that compared to SmartTrack, almost all the LRT stations would serve areas with higher concentrations of equity-seeking groups like low-income residents and visible minorities. Research has shown those groups have borne the brunt of the economic and health impacts of COVID-19 in Toronto.

“I think it’s important that we start setting our transportation planning objectives in a way that improves the wellbeing of folks who currently have a raw deal. I don’t think SmartTrack does a good job of that,” Farber said.

The LRT is estimated to cost approximately $4.2 billion, and although the city has pledged $1.2 billion, it is not fully funded.

Council approved the five-station version of SmartTrack in February 2021. The stops will be constructed by the Ontario government on provincial GO Transit lines within Toronto, but paid for by the city with the help of $585 million in federal funding. They’re scheduled to be in service by 2026, five years later than the mayor initially pledged to finish SmartTrack.

Tory maintains the project is an effective use of funds.

“SmartTrack is part of a modern, integrated and expanded transit network that the city is getting built with our strong partners in the provincial and federal governments,” said his spokesperson Don Peat.

As the Star reported Wednesday, the January 2021 staff report overstated how many marginalized residents SmartTrack would serve, as well as other benefits of the project. Staff knew of the errors but said they weren’t significant enough to correct.