Mayor Rob Ford emerged from a closed door meeting with a number of developers Wednesday more insistent than ever that the city must build subways instead of light rail transit.
Ford, who suffered his greatest defeat to date earlier this month when council voted in favour of a light rail transit plan, told reporters that the meeting further convinced him that the city can afford a $4.5 billion expansion of the Sheppard subway line, despite a sizeable deficit.
The expansion was part of Ford's $12.6-billion transit project, which also included an $8.15 billion underground line on Eglinton Avenue to be funded by the province.
"As a united group they said we want subways in this city, you are on the right path and we can afford it," Ford told reporters. "These guys are major players in this country and every single one of them said let's do it."
Transit City was developed under former Mayor David Miller and called for light-rail transit to be built along Eglinton, Sheppard and Finch Avenues.
The entire project was to be funded with $8.15 billion in provincial funding along with another $300 million from the federal government, but when Ford took over he said he wasn't interested in building transit above ground and declared the entire project dead.
He later replaced it with a $12.6-billion plan that would leave the city to foot the bill for the Sheppard Subway expansion.
"We had a great discussion for an hour and a half today and like I have always said this is very, very doable and affordable," Ford said Wednesday.
While Ford has suggested that the Sheppard subway expansion could be funded through increased development fees, sponsorship dollars and even tolls he's been short on details, Coun. Josh Matlow told CP24.
"The mayor will say he wants subways, but the one thing we are still asking him to do is to provide us with a realistic fiscally responsible plan," he said. "If he can provide a plan that actually makes sense I will consider it, but to build full subways out in the suburbs when we don't have the money for it isn't fiscally responsible nor is it dealing with the reality."
Matlow, one of the moderates on council, went on to say that evidence, not rhetoric must dictate the city's actions.
"I know this is a novel approach but we should consider evidence," he said. "We need to consider everything from engineering reports to realistic projections for density in population and ridership."
City council will hold a special meeting on March 15, where the findings of an expert panel charged with studying transit options along Sheppard will be reviewed.
