Blame planners for LRT construction mess
Editor’s note: Bob Murphy was a Ward 22 candidate for city council in the Oct. 27 municipal election.
In the one debate that was held for Ward 22, on Rogers Cable, I said my preference was to kill the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
Today there is talk of compensation for merchants who have suffered losses incurred while Metrolinx erected a maze of fences, not to build the transit line but to move utilities. But should the taxpayers pay to compensate the merchants? Or should we identify those responsible for the decision to build the LRT on Eglinton when they knew it would have to be below grade and that utilities would have to be moved?
It was planners who foisted Transit City on us. It was planners who upzoned the “Eglinton Way” to 25-metre height and have triggered land speculation that will drive the rest of the merchants out. It was the planners who gave council advice, which council accepted in the mistaken belief planners are actually “experts” of some kind.
Are planners professionals? If so, should they carry malpractice insurance? If a doctor or a lawyer gave advice that was purely ideological and that caused unnecessary distress to a patient or client that doctor or lawyer would be financially liable.
Are planners professional? Then make them pay for their bad advice.
Bob Murphy
Yonge Street
Toronto
