One mayoral candidate is vowing to sue Metrolinx for $1 billion over delays to the Eglinton Crossstown, while another says he would push for the termination of the provincial transit agency’s CEO instead.
On Friday morning, candidate Anthony Furey announced his plans to sue Metrolinx for $1 billion if elected. The proposed lawsuit would be for what Furey called Metrolinx’s “contractual breaches and persistent failures” with regards to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.
Construction on the $5 billion project began in 2011 and was initially slated to be completed by 2020.
There is still no timeline for when the LRT will be operational.
“It’s been over a decade of this and the people of Toronto have politely accepted delay after delay, poor communication, gridlock and harm to businesses along a major street,” Furey said. “City council has been quietly accepting this shoddy performance, but it’s now time to get noisy and show that we won’t take it anymore. Someone has to protect the taxpayers and stand up for the people of Toronto.”
Furey said any proceeds from legal action would be distributed to businesses and BIAs on Eglinton Avenue.
“Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Metrolinx boss Phil Verster want to blame the contractors, but that won’t cut it,” Furey said. “It’s their job to manage the contractors and they’re just not doing their job.”
In a press conference on Thursday, Verster said one of the main causes for the Crosstown LRT delay is track laid outside of Metrolinx's requirements, a mistake that is now being fixed by CTS.
He said there are also more than 200 other quality control issues that Crosslinx needs to fix.
"We are withholding substantial payments against completion of the project," he said, declining to provide an estimated opening date for the LRT.
Mayoral candidate Brad Bradford has also called for strict penalties against Metrolinx.
On Friday Bradford held a press conference, where he committed to calling on the provincial government to fire Verster and replace him with "someone in charge who can actually get the job done."
“For the average working person, if they don’t perform and consistently blow their targets, they don’t get a raise and may even lose their job,” he said in a news release.
Crosslinx filed a lawsuit against Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario in October 2020, saying that they should not be held accountable for delays in cost overruns on the project because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A judge eventually sided with the consortium, and the two sides renegotiated an agreement in December that called for the line to be substantially completed by September 2022.
That, however, didn’t happen, and Mulroney said on Thursday that the consortium is yet to provide a “credible” timeline.
