Mayor John Tory says that he fully expects that the Eglinton Crosstown will be operational sometime in 2023, despite the numerous delays that have now left the project without a public timeline for completion.

Tory made the comment to CP24 during a year-end interview on Thursday morning, while conceding that the 12-month estimate is simply his “best guess” and isn’t based on any inside information.

“They (the province) have sort of indicated it's going to be into next year and well into next year but I think when we sit down here at this time next year, it will either be operating or about to operate,” he said. “That's my guess. But I don't know anything more than anybody else. I think it would be better if they came out and just said this is the date. This is what we're doing. This is what's wrong.”

Construction on the transit line began in 2011 and was initially scheduled to be completed in 2020 amid numerous delays that later became the subject of legal action between Metrolinx and the consortium responsible for building the project.

The two sides eventually agreed to a new deadline of this fall for work to be “substantially completed” but in September Metrolinx announced that the project was once again behind schedule.

Since then officials have refused to provide a new date for the completion of the line, only saying that they want it operational “as soon as possible.”

However, internal Metrolinx documents obtained by CTV News Toronto earlier this month showed that the project is now running $1 billion over its projected budget and that officials do not know when it will be completed, even internally.

“I regret the fact they haven't come up with a date but I think you'll find it'll be finished in the next 12 months,” Tory said on Thursday. “If you look at it people see the vehicles being tested, they see the stations that are there. It is really some sort of technical glitches that they are working out so they can make absolutely sure that when it does work it runs properly. In Ottawa, they started it (a new LRT) too soon and they had terrible problems with the thing just not working half the time.”

 

City to face financial challenges in 2023

Tory’s year-end interview on Thursday comes with the city facing significant financial challenges in 2023.

Toronto is currently staring down a $703 million budget shortfall due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and officials have already started putting some capital projects on hold as a result.

Speaking with CP24, Tory called the financial struggles “a daily challenge” but he said that he remains hopeful that the federal government will step forward with funding to make the city whole, as it did the previous two years.

This after Toronto City Council took the relatively unusual step last week of voting to publicly shame the federal government with a note in property tax bills should they not provide funding.

It will also include information about any federal COVID-19 relief funding in property tax bills, should it ultimately be provided.

“I think they (the feds) would say with some justification they've done a lot. You know, during the pandemic, they did a lot and they did a lot for Toronto and I acknowledge that. But the point I'm making to them now is we need just a little bit more help to get us through the pandemic because all of what we're asking for is pandemic-related shortfall,” Tory said. “But they're engaged in a bit of a to-and-fro with the province about who should be doing what and I just have to sort of do my best to make our case and if it doesn't work well then that's unfortunate, and I think it's wrong. But having said that, we will move forward.”

 

Gridlock downtown ‘not acceptable’

Construction was a major topic of conversation in Toronto in 2022 as a number of major road projects brought about gridlock, amid a wider return of workers to downtown office spaces.

In 2023 work is expected to accelerate on the Ontario Line, with a planned year-long closure of Queen street between Bay and Victoria street set to begin, potentially creating further headaches for commuters.

Speaking with CP24, Tory acknowledged that the level of gridlock downtown is “not acceptable” but said that the city will be taking several steps to address it.

He said that the city will be creating a “no fly zone” of sorts downtown, whereby certain work that disrupts traffic would be prohibited during peak hours.

He also promised an announcement sometime in the New Year about “increasing the number of traffic agents” assigned to problematic intersections.

“There's a huge amount of construction going on. That is a good news story. The transit that is being constructed, the work that we're doing to replace 120-year old watermains and all the housing construction. But we're going to take some definitive steps in the New Year to make the downtown congestion, in particular, much better because it's not acceptable,” he said.