Reactions are pouring in online after the Ontario government announced it will take responsibility for the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway from Toronto in a new “historic” deal.
On Monday, Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow made the joint announcement at Queen’s Park.
Ontario has agreed to provide Toronto up to $1.2 billion in provincial operating supports over three years, saving the city billions of dollars.
The deal includes $330 million over three years for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Finch West LRT, $600 million for shelters (conditional on federal support for refugee and asylum claimants), and uploading both the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway to the province. A full list of the terms included in the deal can be found here.
“This historic new deal will help support the future growth of Toronto, delivering shared priorities like building homes, public transit and infrastructure. Toronto is critical to Ontario and Canada’s economic success, and we need all levels of government working together to deliver solutions that protect services and put the city on a path towards long-term financial sustainability,” Ford said at a news conference Monday morning.
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Chow says the deal will significantly help Toronto tackle its $1.5 billion shortfall.
“This new deal means unlocking Toronto’s potential. It means the city has billions more for affordable housing, fixing our aging transit system and building complete communities with child care, community centres, parks and more,” Chow said.
In exchange however, Toronto has agreed to meeting or exceeding the province’s housing targets, taking further actions to find efficiencies in service delivery and procurement, and accepting that the province has authority to advance project approvals for Ontario Place.
“The province has also agreed to explore relocating the parking structure to the Exhibition Place grounds to improve public access to the shoreline and to discuss partnership opportunities with the city for maintaining public, community-oriented science programming at the legacy Ontario Science Centre,” reads a news release.
Since the deal was announced, Ontarians have been reacting online. Some are praising Chow for securing the notable deal only five months into officially becoming mayor, while others are slamming the provincial government for continuing their plans to redesign Ontario Place, which includes a new luxury spa.
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Former Toronto mayor John Tory commended Chow and Ford on the negotiation.
“This deal represents an extremely important first step in recognizing Toronto’s unique status among cities in Ontario and Canada and beginning to address some of the challenges that go with that,” Tory posted on X.
Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford also echoed Tory’s sentiments and said “today is good news for the people of Toronto.”
“Our city needs to focus on the most important problems ahead of us: building more housing, unlocking gridlock, and achieving fiscal sustainability. I am relieved that common-sense solutions prevailed,” he said on X.
“Mayor Chow has been on the job for five months and has secured a new deal for Toronto. She’s positioned affordable and public housing as a priority, reversed TTC service cuts, brought city-wide 24/7 mobile crisis response & put $1.9 B back into the city’s ten-year capital budget,” NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam posted on X.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles also congratulated Chow on her efforts, but doubled down on the Ford government for continuing their redevelopment plans for Ontario Place.
Advocacy group Ontario Place for All joined the conversation, saying the government continues to push for a project that the public has shown “complete disdain” for.
“I question why Ford continues to pursue such an unpopular project in the face of viable alternatives offered by the City of Toronto, the opposition of Torontonians as well as Ontarians across the province?,” asked Norm Di Pasquale, Ontario Place for All co-chair, in a statement.
The government will soon introduce the New Deal for Toronto Act at Queen’s Park, and if passed, it would provide the necessary authorities to make the deal a reality.
