Richmond Hill mayor presses minister on subway extension

YorkRegion.com
July 23, 2014
Kim Zarzour

The province has the mandate and the money – now is the time to make the Yonge-North subway happen.

That was the message yesterday from Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow reacting to news that the Ontario budget, tabled July 14, has allocated $29 billion for GTA transit and transportation projects over the next 10 years.

“The Yonge-North subway extension project has been identified by Metrolinx as a priority project awaiting funding from the province,” Barrow said. “The provincial government has both the mandate and the budget and should begin to build this badly-needed transit project now.”

Barrow called on the new minister of transportation Steven Del Duca to make the subway extension to Richmond Hill Centre a top priority for its transportation plan.

 The extension line north is consistently one of the top concerns of Richmond Hill residents, he said, but the positive impact of the Richmond Hill Centre transit anchor will reach across the GTA, delivering more riders and ridership movement than any other anchor in the GTA apart from Union Station.

With the environmental assessment unconditionally approved in 2009, and the conceptual design study approved by the Toronto Transit Commission and The Regional Municipality of York in 2012, Barrow said the project is “shovel-ready”.

Transportation Minister Del Duca has promised York Region residents help is on the way.

The region will benefit from the $15 billion allotted for Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area transportation infrastructure and transit needs over the next decade, he said, and another $14 billion set aside for regions outside the GTHA, part of a larger, 10-year, $130-billion commitment to public infrastructure.

There’s no word on the Yonge Street subway extension into Richmond Hill, but the Liberal Vaughan MPP said individual projects can’t be looked at in absence of the much larger plan.

Between the Spadina subway extension into York and the VivaNext bus rapidways under construction on Davis Drive in Newmarket and along Hwy. 7 through Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan, the region has already been the recipient of significant transit investments, he said.

The province’s direction to Metrolinx — that it work toward regional express rail to provide fast, efficient and electrified all-day, two-way service on all of its corridors running at intervals as frequent as 15 minutes — has the power to be more transformative still, he added.

Julia Munro, Progressive Conservative MPP for York-Simcoe, is not so sure.

She worries Premier Kathleen Wynne’s newly elected majority government is leading the province down a road to ruin.

Whether it’s $29 billion for public transit and transportation infrastructure or $700 million for hospitals, too many of the plans seem to have the same, vague 10-year timeframe attached to them, with few specifics, she said.

But Del Duca said change won’t come overnight.

There has been a significant amount of progress made already, he said, noting the government also wants to move on things such as regional express rail on lines in York Region and beyond because it’s very popular and there’s a growing demand.

All-day, two-way express train service will take up to 10 years of work alongside municipalities and other important partners, he said.

In terms of generating the funds needed to realize such transit visions, Del Duca said the budget lays out a plan to do so through the re-allocation of gas taxes, along with other revenue-raising mechanisms, such as barring large corporations from claiming the small business tax deduction, phasing in a four-cent-per-litre tax on aviation fuel over four years and setting aside revenue from the sale of certain, as-of-yet unspecified assets, through the proposed Trillium Trust, among several others.

Munro also expressed concern abou the provincial deficit and debt, but Del Duca said his government has an aggressive plan to get the province’s books back to balance.

 “The premier has been clear that while we are fiscally responsible, we will continue to make the kinds of investments we need to grow our economy.”

That includes investments in public transit and crucial transportation infrastructure, Del Duca continued, noting such actions will be necessary to ensure the efficient movement of people and commercial goods.