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Feds pledge $660 million for subway

Rob Ford’s long crusade to build a Scarborough subway got a major boost on Monday, when the federal government announced it would meet council’s funding request for the hotly debated transit project.

At a press conference at the Don Montgomery Community Centre Monday morning, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confirmed that Ottawa would chip in the full $660 million that the city had been seeking to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway north to Sheppard.

“The government of Prime Minister Harper is pleased to announce that we will continue to support subway expansion here in Toronto,” Flaherty said. “We are committing to the mayor’s request, supported by council, for funding for $660 million.”

According to the minister, the new money is in addition to an earlier $330-million commitment for transit on Sheppard East.

“Our message from the government of Canada today is, you have our money, let’s get this subway built,” Flaherty said.

It was a moment to savour for Mayor Ford, even though the proposed extension is much more modest than the major subway buildout he promised as part of his 2010 election platform. During the campaign, he pledged that lengthy additions to both the Sheppard and Bloor-Danforth lines would be completed by 2015.

Taking to the podium after Flaherty’s brief speech, Ford boasted that throughout the circuitous transit debate at City Hall, his commitment to subways never faltered.

“Folks I did exactly, exactly what the taxpayers asked me to do. And that’s fight, fight, and don’t give up,” said Ford, in an address that could serve as a template for his 2014 campaign. “Cause I promised, I promised when I was elected mayor that we would build subways. And folks, that’s another promise made and another promise kept.

“Residents of Scarborough have waited long enough for quality rapid transit, and folks, that wait is almost over.”

While Flaherty’s announcement is a giant step forward for subway project, some significant obstacles to its completion remain.

Chief among them is a disagreement with the provincial government over its proposed route.

Flaherty confirmed Monday he supports the route endorsed by council, which would be 7.6 kilometres long and travel up to Sheppard via McCowan. Meanwhile Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray favours a less expensive 6.4-kilometre line that would travel along the current path of the Scarborough RT and only go as far as the Scarborough Town Centre.

Queen’s Park has pledged $1.4 billion to Scarborough transit, but it’s unclear if Murray will agree to spend the cash on the alignment backed by council and the feds. Without the provincial money, the subway plan would fall apart.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Murray appeared reluctant to abandon his preferred route. He argued that the expensive council option made no sense when the province could use its $1.4 billion to unilaterally build the shorter line instead.

“We have a plan to get to the Scarborough Town Centre, which we know is the important hub. We can do that without the other governments,” he said.

He estimated council’s line to Sheppard would cost $3 billion, and that even with the federal contribution, it would still be roughly a billion dollars short.

“We’re not walking away from a project that’s fully funded for one that isn’t,” he said.

But serious questions have been raised about the feasibility of Murray’s plan. A report published Monday by the TTC determined it had many drawbacks, including: requiring a three-year shut down of the Scarborough RT with only buses to replace the service an above-ground design that would expose tracks to the elements and necessitate premature replacement and tight curves that would test the limits of engineering and require trains to slow down drastically.

The report, which will be debated at the TTC board meeting on Wednesday, also predicted Murray’s plan would cost $1.8 billion, $400 million more than the province has stated.

TTC chair Karen Stintz believes that with federal money on the table, Murray will come around to council’s preferred route.

“I would hope that after everything that we’ve been through, and the commitment that the… provincial government has made to build a subway, that we can work through these last roadblocks and get it built,” she said.

She acknowledged however that even with $660 million from Ottawa and $1.4 billion from Queen’s Park, the subway would still be short of funding. The TTC estimates the line would cost $2.5 billion (far lower than Murray’s estimate) but that would still leave the city on the hook for roughly $500 million.

To pay for the city’s share of the extension, in July council approved a 1.1-per-cent property tax increase, as well as new development charges. But the 1.1-per-cent hike would raise only $26 million a year, and Stintz conceded that council might have to approve a bigger tax hit.

“In the final analysis, when we do the final costing, that report will come to council and we’ll know what the tax increase is going to be,” she said.

She also called on the province to contribute $1.8 billion to the subway, the same amount it had initially budgeted for a Scarborough LRT. According to the July vote, council’s support for the project is contingent on receiving the full $1.8 billion.

Even if all the money materializes, there are some at City Hall who believe it would be far better spent on more pressing transit projects. Councillor Josh Matlow argues that the city should use the $1.4 billion from to province to go back to the original Scarborough LRT plan, and allocate the federal funding for the desperately needed downtown relief line, which would ease congestion on the overloaded Yonge subway.

“A small subway extension is not a priority for Toronto,” Matlow said of the Scarborough subway plan.

“This is going to be pushing back the downtown relief line project perhaps several years.”

Council will debate the Scarborough subway plan at its meeting next month, when the city manager is expected to table a report taking into consideration the latest funding developments.

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