A city councillor behind an ambitious $30-billion plan for improving public transit says she is “pretty sure” her colleagues on council will vote to further study her plan at a meeting next week.
Karen Stintz made the comments to CP24 Thursday afternoon, rejecting any suggestion that her OneCity transit plan could be scuttled just over a week after it was first announced.
“By and large the public wants to see this plan move forward and I am pretty sure we are going to get the support (at council) to study the plan,” she said. “For too long we have either had a plan with no funding or funding without a plan and it is important to bring the two together.”
Stintz first submitted her 30-year, $30-billion plan for 170 kilometres of new transit to council last Wednesday.
Her plan, which would be supported by a 1.9 per cent property tax hike over four years, immediately drew the ire of Mayor Rob Ford and his councillor brother Doug who said taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for transit expansion.
“I can’t support it,” Mayor Ford said Thursday. “I can’t support taxing the hard working residents of this city.”
Speaking with CP24 Stintz dismissed that criticism, saying taxpayers haven’t even had a chance to weigh in.
“I think we need to study the plan and all the funding proposals, so people do feel comfortable with what they are potentially going to be paying into,” Stintz told CP24. “We need to ask people are you willing to invest in this plan? Is this something you want to pay for?”
If Stintz’s plan does gain the necessary support at council and becomes reality it would see six new subway routes, 10 new LRT lines and five new bus and streetcar paths constructed in the city.
The first priority would be to replace the Scarborough RT with a subway extension from Kennedy Station to Scarborough Town Centre and then to Sheppard Avenue.
