Can't stop subway now, Tory says

Torontosun.com
Sept. 21, 2022

Toronto mayoral candidate John Tory says he’s prepared to use the new strong mayor powers if necessary to push through important transit projects in the city.

Speaking in front of a construction site for the Scarborough subway extension Tuesday, Tory said there are mayoral and councillor candidates who if elected would seek to slow down or halt this and possibly other projects in a $28-billion transit plan agreed to by three levels of government.

“I can tell you right now the urgency of building transit in this city is such that if there was anything that in any way stood in the way of that transit getting built, especially that transit which has been agreed to already, the answer would be yes,” Tory said, when asked if he would invoke the new mayoral powers for transit. “I just think that it is irresponsible not to do everything possible to build the transit that is included in this plan … I hope that I would be making rare use of those new authorities in any event and in any area.”

The Doug Ford government has provided the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa with new powers, including a veto, to ensure that provincial priorities such as housing and transit move forward efficiently.

The Scarborough Subway has been repeatedly debated at city council over the years as some members fought for an LRT which they argued was a better choice.

Tory is one of 31 candidates seeking the mayor’s chair in the Oct. 24 municipal election and the full slate can be found at toronto.ca/city-government/elections/candidate-list.

Tory said he would, if re-elected for a third term, focus on the four transit projects in the $29-billion plan -- the Scarborough subway extension, the Ontario Line, the Eglinton Crosstown West extension and the Yonge North extension -- while planning for more transit for Scarborough and the city’s downtown waterfront.

Toronto has seen transit projects halted and even filled in when governments have changed in the past, he said.

“And I think we’ve come so far now, further than ever before, in having a three-government deal, having the money set aside to pay for it by each of those three governments, that it would be really just the worst shame on us ever and on our future success and our future environmental sustainability for us to have that happen,” Tory said.

While saying he hoped it wouldn’t happen, Tory did not rule out the possibility that another municipal leader might attempt to use the new strong mayor powers to delay or halt some of these transit projects.