McGuinty, Metrolinx shafting Toronto

Metrolinx and Premier Dalton McGuinty want to cut the proposed Transit City lines by 22.5 kilometres and 25 stops. Construction has been delayed up to five years on the Scarborough RT, Finch and Eglinton lines and they won't be finished until 2020.

Metrolinx CEO Rob Prichard said the city and TTC agreed to reduce the size of the plans when the TTC's detailed estimates desmonstrated the plan would cost an additional $2 billion more than the $8.15 billion the McGuinty government agreed to fund for Transit City, before the provincial budget, revealed in March, postponed $4 billion from its first five years of funding:

We worked on the phasing with the city and the TTC throughout the fall and reached a consensus by the end of February. These are difficult choices because we would all like to complete all the projects and all their phases as quickly as possible. However the original budget of $8.15 billion is a firm limit that we and the city must work within.

Not so says Mayor Miller. Seems that Prichard here is outright lying. Not only did Stuart Green, a spokesman for Miller deny this, but Miller challenged McGuinty in a letter he recently wrote to the premier, who wrote that the city's most vulnerable neighbourhoods will be hit by the delays and cutbacks:

The first five years of cash flow proposed by Metrolinx is inadequate to ensure completion in the 10-year time frame. This will result in partial lines, inadequate service, and will cost more overall due to significant additional cost to purchase buses and associated infrastructure to fill the gap created by the reduced plan.

Miller's went on to ask the premier to reconsider the city's recent proposal to the province, which would tackle the financing for Transit City for the first five years, with the province paying back the city later when it is in better fiscal shape. Prichard and McGuinty of course, at least for the time being, are more concerned with the provincial debt, as opposed to expanding public transit in Toronto which would greatly boost the economy and create thousands of jobs.