Gardiner debate a big test of Mayor Tory's hold on council

theglobeandmail.com
June 10, 2015
By Oliver Moore

In an early test of Mayor John Tory’s ability to carry council with him, the long-awaited debate over the future of Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway finally began Wednesday.

What to do with the eastern portion of the expressway is the biggest decision to face this council. There were only two options presented by staff: rebuilding and tweaking the current elevated expressway or replacing it with a street-level boulevard. But some councillors appeared determined to inject a variety of new ideas, including calls to study a tunnel.

With streaming manes of reinforcing steel, partially demolished concrete higway supports ressemble a line of wild horses in this photo taken March 12, 2001. The demolition is part of the ongoing removal of the Gardiner Expressway between Leslie Street and the Don Valley Parkway.

After years of discussion and weeks of politicking and lobbying, council kicked off the lengthy and at times fractious debate. And with Mr. Tory putting his political weight behind keeping the elevated highway largely as it is, his success or failure on this issue will set the tone for his young administration.

Vote-counting by The Globe and Mail shows that the two sides are evenly split, with a shrinking number of undecided voters.

“I was elected as the mayor of the whole city,” Mr. Tory stressed in his first substantive remarks, late in the day. “And I was elected to try and fix traffic congestion.”

The mayor had barely spoken all day, as councillors asked questions of staff, but moved in the early evening to introduce a complicated three-part motion. A rainstorm lashed city hall as councillors digested his motion before the true debate could begin. The motion was not voted on before the council recessed. Debate will continue Thursday morning.

The debate soon became fractious, and occasionally emotional. A number of councillors voiced frustration that they were being given only two options.

Councillor and TTC chair Josh Colle wants to look at privatizing the entire Gardiner Expressway, with the buyers presumably being allowed to charge tolls. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti is arguing for turning the elevated highway into a car-free zone, moving the vehicular traffic on to the Lake Shore below. And he supported Councillor Jim Karygiannis’s call to look at burying the Gardiner.

“I would advise you not to do that [look into a tunnel], given the time involved, the cost involved and the practicality involved,” acting city manager John Livey said in response to a question from Mr. Mammoliti.

Mr. Livey had pushed in his presentation to council Wednesday morning that a prompt decision was needed. In the early evening Mr. Karygiannis introduced a motion calling for the issue to come back to council in September, with staff studying the feasibility of tunnelling the entire Gardiner Expressway. That option gained support from councillors eager to pull down the highway but ultimately failed on a 15-29 vote.

Most of the Gardiner would be unaffected by the debate underway at city council. At issue is only the 1.7-kilometre portion from Jarvis to the Don Valley Parkway, plus the ramps at Logan Avenue.

Keeping that Gardiner as an elevated expressway, removing the ramps at Logan and putting in new ramps would cost $921-million over the lifespan of the infrastructure. The city’s environmental assessment shows it would involve slight delays for drivers, compared with the status quo, but would open up for development a site crucial to Mr. Tory’s transit plans.

Removing the elevated Gardiner in that area would cost $461-million in the long term and involve driver delays slightly greater than keeping the highway, according to the EA. It would also free up the site Mr. Tory needs, plus some city land slated for development.

Mr. Tory came out early in support of the highway and has been backed by several mostly suburban councillors, a coalition of trucking groups, the financial district BIA and the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

Lining up on the other side is a bevy of downtown and midtown councillors, including some from Mr. Tory’s executive committee, as well as the current and former chief city planners, some developers and two former mayors.