Premier Doug Ford ducks Thornhill residents seeking his ear on Yonge subway extension route under their neighbourhood

Yorkregion.com
March 31, 2022

A group of Royal Orchard residents affected by the Yonge North Subway Extension alignment tried, in vain, to get the attention of Premier Doug Ford after he attended an event in Thornhill March 20.

“After a year of trying to get him to respond to our letters, we hoped he would stop and talk with us or, at a minimum, let us invite him to come visit our community to see where this ill thought-out alignment by Metrolinx is planned to tunnel under our homes and school,” said area resident and Keep the Subway on Yonge Steering Committee member Roz FitzPatrick.

“After standing outside waiting for him for two hours, he snuck out the back door and when his vehicle came close to the sidewalk where we were waiting to speak with him, his vehicle put its flashing lights and siren on as his driver drove by us without stopping.”

The snub was "insulting" for concerned residents who, for the past year, have made a concerted effort to get the Yonge subway extension back under Yonge Street after Metrolinx revised the route in Thornhill that requires tunnelling under homes, schools and parks.

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency in charge of the project, did revise the route to impact fewer homes in response to concerns from the community, but it has steadfastly stood by its preferred alignment saying any further changes aren’t technically feasible and would balloon costs over the $5.6-billion funding envelope.

Despite numerous community engagement sessions, backing by Vaughan and Markham councils for a Yonge Street alignment and options presented by the Keep the Subway on Yonge Committee, many say the premier needs to step up with a straight answer before the train has permanently left the station on getting the subway back on Yonge Street.

Had they been given the opportunity, group members wanted to make it clear to Ford that the current strategy is an engineering and political accident waiting to happen and that building transit faster does not equal smarter and better.

The committee would like a sit down with either the premier, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney or Minister of Infrastructure Kinga Surma to fully review a project it considers “full of holes.”

That includes the recent Environmental Project Report Addendum released for the project.

A 14-page list of concerns was sent to Metrolinx, including most notably that none of the results of the geotechnical investigations performed in the Royal Orchard community are included in the addendum.

“Overall, we are disturbed by the absence of area-specific data resulting in a lack of evidence-based impact assessment and the application of generic mitigation measures,” said committee member Alice Young.

“Considering the incursion into the Royal Orchard community is a net new change to the 2009 and 2014 YNSE Environmental Progress Reports, residents expected to see much more granular data and more rigorous analysis of existing conditions and impacts of subway construction and operations,” she added.

Young said more detailed information on mitigation measures is required, with residents troubled by the frequent references to “data not available” in the addendum.

“This undermines the policy intent of the environmental assessment process,” she said, adding an environmental assessment is a critical “look before you leap” tool.

"It allows us to study and understand the human, social and environment impacts of a project before a decision is made.”

Similarly, a group “walk-through” of the Royal Orchard neighbourhood with Metrolinx officials took place March 11 at the request of the committee so representatives could meet the community face-to-face to better appreciate the human costs to their plan.

Young said residents refuse to be collateral damage and want their voices to be heard.

“How our community is being treated is symptomatic of the overall erosion of citizens' rights.”

Construction on the subway extension is expected to begin in late 2023. The province has said that the project could be completed in 2030.