Mayor John Tory and Councillor Josh Matlow square off on Scarborough transit
A lack of facts and politically expedient decisions have left residents shortchanged on rapid transit, councillor tells crowd at Malvern Community Recreation Centre.

Thestar.com
Jennifer Pagliaro
Nov. 29, 2017

Standing in the middle of the Malvern Community Recreation Centre, Mayor John Tory and councillor Josh Matlow squared off on the transit that Scarborough residents deserve.

Moments earlier, Matlow rose from his seat in the back of the gym-turned-meeting-space and told the approximately 30 residents there for a public consultation that they were being shortchanged by Tory’s preference to build a one-stop subway extension to the Scarborough Town Centre.

“Unless you live right next to the Town Centre, you’re going to be left on the bus for much longer,” said Matlow, who has been critical of the lack of information to justify the subway and has advocated for a network of LRTs that have already been studied and approved.

“The way that council can actually support your interests to move forward with funding transit is to spend every dollar wisely on as many stops as possible rather than having a simply subway versus LRT debate,” he said Wednesday night.

As the room applauded, Tory and local councillor Neethan Shan looked on from their seats near the front of the room.

City staff were hosting the first public consultation on the Eglinton East LRT, a plan recently revived that would extend from Kennedy Station along Eglinton Ave. and up Morningside Ave. to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.

Council has approved the one-stop subway extension of the Bloor-Danforth line what was modified from a three-stop plan introduced under mayor Rob Ford. In 2013, council flip-flopped on transit plans to replace the aging Scarborough RT, killing the fully-funded, seven-stop LRT that would have run in the same corridor as the SRT.

That LRT would have served twice as many people and stopped at the edge of Malvern. It was planned to be extended to the Malvern Town Centre. Earlier city studies show the LRT would have halved the current commute from Malvern Town Centre to Kennedy Station. The subway saves only eight minutes on the same commute.

Last year, city staff presented a modified plan meant to increase the amount of new transit for Scarborough. Then-chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat told council they could eliminate two of the subway stops to pay for the Eglinton East LRT.

But as costs for the subway ballooned to $3.35 billion, that part of the plan has eaten up almost all of the $3.56 billion currently available.

Today the $1.67-billion Eglinton East LRT line remains mostly unfunded and is competing with other transit projects like the downtown relief line which the TTC says is a top priority for federal and provincial funding.

At the meeting, city staff presented possible alignments for extending the Eglinton East line between 4.2 to 4.7 kilometres to reach the Malvern Town Centre. They are considering six stops, which are not funded as part of the current proposal before council.

As staff wrapped up questions at the meeting, Tory got up to speak, chastising Matlow for “injecting” what he called “one-sided” politics into the meeting and blamed earlier terms of council for changing their minds on transit plans.

The subway, he said, would be an “excellent long-term investment.”

Afterwards, the mayor exchanged words with Matlow among the mingling crowd, criticizing the councillor’s speech.

“I simply got up to respond to say there is another point of view and these meetings aren’t meant to be political debates,” Tory continued in a scrum with reporters, saying he got up to speak only because Matlow did.

Matlow told reporters he was simply sharing information with the city’s residents where it has been lacking.

“This is my city. These residents deserve to know the facts. These residents deserve to have better transit. I believe I’m within my bounds and I think it’s important that people know the truth,” he said.

Residents who attended the meeting said they remain worried the promises of new transit will never come to fruition.

“They show us these great, glossy pictures, everything looks so wonderful and it never happens,” said Felicia Samuel, who is running as the Ontario NDP candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River. She is also a member of the Connect Sheppard East advocacy group that has been pushing for third LRT line promised by the province that appears to be in limbo.

“Since I was a kid, nothing’s changed. That’s a problem. And to be honest, I think I’m going to die and nothing will change.”

Raylene Hunt, who was raised in Malvern, said she spends an hour and 40 minutes each way commuting downtown at least twice a week — much of it on the bus.

She praised the plan for a subway extension because it would mean less transfers then the trip she takes today.

“Convenience is one thing I’m looking for,” she said, adding she wants new transit to be more reliable than the creaking SRT has been.