Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says that a Tory government would “take on” the city’s nearly $1 billion share of the Line 2 subway extension provided that the savings go towards extending the Eglinton Crosstown to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus.
In 2016, the city scaled back the Scarborough subway extension from three stops to one-stop in order to slash $1 billion off the price tag. At the time, staff suggested that the money could be reinvested in the construction of a $1.6 billion, 17-stop LRT line to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus but that hope was quickly dashed, as ballooning costs on the project soon took up all but $200 million of the savings.
Brown, however, told reporters on Friday that he would be willing to provide the city with nearly $1 billion in additional funding for the project if elected premier.
Brown, who made the commitment following a meeting with Mayor John Tory, said the additional funding would be “subject” to the city making a “significant investment” in extending the Eglinton Crosstown to Scarborough.
“The people of Scarborough deserve quality transit,” Brown said. “Toronto council has voted and approved this (the subway extension) nine times. The people of Scarborough have been promised this subway again and again and again. They were promised it by the Liberals in the Scarborough-Guildwood byelection and they dropped the ball. They were promised it again in the Scarborough-Rouge River byelection and the Liberals again have done nothing. What we are saying is that we are going to get this done for the people of Scarborough because they deserve to have quality transit as well.”
The cost of the Scarborough extension has risen to an estimated $3.35 billion and could go up further as design work continues.
Brown said that a Tory government would want to see the Scarborough subway extension “get built immediately” and would also agree to adjust the provincial funding commitment from 2010 in light of inflation.
That would mean that the provincial funding commitment would rise from $1.48 billion in 2010 dollars to nearly $2 billion, something Brown said that the Liberal government has not agreed to “fully fund.”
“It is time for the debate on these projects to end and for construction to begin,” Brown says.
In March, city council approved a preferred route alignment for the Scarborough subway extension but much of the design work needed to actually get shovels in the ground has not been completed.
Staff have indicated that construction won’t get underway until 2019.
