Go time for Transit City

[attach]1507[/attach]It’s now or never for Toronto’s Transit City plans — that was the message from Mayor David Miller when he sat down for an editorial meeting with the Town Crier this afternoon.

On the offensive since the province’s recent announcement that it would delay half of its pledged $8 billion in funding for the city’s light rail transit plans, Miller called attention to a history of unfinished transit projects in Toronto.

“If we miss this chance, it’s going to be another 30 years before we have a rapid transit plan that meets the needs of our inner suburbs. And we’ve all lived through it,” he said.

“I’ve seen it with the Eglinton subway, which started and then when a different government got elected, they actually stopped the construction and ordered the city to fill in the hole which cost $100 million to dig … which is virtually criminal and it’s tragic.”

The new reality of the province’s announcement, Miller said, is that while the Sheppard line (already under construction) and perhaps the Scarborough line may be completed, the Finch west and Eglinton lines may not be.

“Toronto deserves much better,” he said.

Miller pointed out the funding delay would have implications for the city’s poorer residents, as the light rail lines which hang in the balance are those which would service the city’s priority neighbourhoods.

“They reach the people who are excluded from the fabric of our society the most,” said Miller.

Calling the matter an issue of trust in the premier, Miller recalled that Dalton McGuinty announced the funding twice and referred to it in numerous other announcements.

“The premiere made an announcement,” said Miller. “That means in our world that you can go to the bank and bank on it and we did. We actually started the work.

“You cannot stand for a provincial government announcing funding, tasking you to develop a strategy for that funding, spend a year developing that strategy, spend literally millions of dollars on engineering and then at the last minute be told, ‘oh, we’re kidding.’ It’s
just not acceptable.”

Miller said that while the city can come up with solutions for a short delay in funding, the province has left it in the dark with regards to the new time frame for payments.

“If it’s six months, obviously we’ll work with them. But if it’s taking a five-year project and making it a 10-year project, I’ve got very serious concerns, particularly if they’re suggesting some of the lines need to start in the last five years, because we’ve all seen that before. It’ll never happen,” he said.

Miller added that the city would negotiate a time frame for completing the projects with Metrolinx, the agency responsible for regional transit development, once the province reveals clear timing for the funding and agrees to be present at the discussions.

Responding to the idea of introducing road tolls to pay for transit projects, an idea recently floated by Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, Miller said tolls would be inappropriate without further public transit options.

“In the absence of public transit, people would see (tolls) as a money grab. It’s very important from that perspective, to get transit under construction so that people can see that if they’re paying this money, it’s going to make their lives better,” said Miller.

The mayor also responded to recent intense criticism of the transit commission’s customer service by calling it an institutional problem that was being dealt with. However, he said he wasn’t sure whether the province was paying attention to those issues in terms of its
decisions on the Transit City projects.

Emphasizing the fact that light rail projects can be completed relatively quickly if they are funded now, he said the Sheppard line will
be complete by 2014, having been started just last year. By contrast, subway projects take substantially longer to complete, he said.

He noted that the new subway line to York University will take seven years to finish, and predicted it will take generations for the proposed extension of the Yonge subway line to Richmond Hill to get built.

“The premier said himself in 2007 that the time to make this investment is now,” he said. “It’s now 2010, I’d say it’s really now.”