Premier Dalton McGuinty has responded coolly to a request from Mayor Rob Ford for quick help funding the Sheppard Ave. subway expansion, a project that was supposed to proceed without provincial assistance under the March transit agreement that killed the Transit City plan.McGuinty said Ford asked him to speedily provide some of the money - up to $650 million that the province agreed to direct toward Sheppard if it had leftover funds from the $8.2 billion Eglinton Ave. light rail project it is responsible for.
“We'll take a look at the request. I think I've got a slightly different take on the $650 million,” McGuinty said after the meeting in his Queen's Park office, which lasted more than 50 minutes. “The memorandum of understanding that we entered into provides that we could make up to $650 million available once we have determined what our costs are associated with the Eglinton line. And it's pretty hard to make that determination at this point in time.”
Ford's request for provincial money for Sheppard again calls the viability of the project into question. He and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, have said that the Sheppard expansion will be largely financed with private money even though transit experts and their council foes have called that plan unfeasible.
At the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Ripley's aquarium, which he attended immediately after the meeting, Ford said the Sheppard line would indeed be built. “It's definitely, definitely feasible,” he said.
Asked if it's feasible without federal or provincial funding, Ford took a long pause and said, “We're going to obviously need help from all three levels, but it's going to get off the ground and we're going to have the Sheppard subway built.”
“It's important to taxpayers,” he said, “and it was clearly stated during the election. People voted in that area, you look at the poll results, I campaigned on the Sheppard subway and people supported my platform.”
The cost of the expansion was originally estimated at $4.2 billion. Gordon Chong, the leader of the entity tasked with coming up with the business case for the line, later revised the estimate to $4.7 billion.
Construction on a Sheppard light rail line had already begun when Ford scrapped the Transit City plan championed by his predecessor, David Miller, in favour of a plan that would include a subway on Sheppard. Transit City would also have included a light rail line on Finch Ave.
McGuinty said Ford wants the provincial money now because the city might lose out on $333 million in federal funding without it. But the $333 million is associated with Transit City, McGuinty said; Ottawa had agreed to pay a third of the $950 estimated cost of the Sheppard LRT.
“That $333 million is in fact connected to the Transit City deal,” McGuinty said. “And the mayor's trying to have that transferred into this new deal that we've arranged here...The mayor and I have done a new deal. New mayor, new deal.”
Ford said he had not asked McGuinty for any “new money.” “It’s existing money. There’s some deadlines that we have to meet. And that’s it,” he said. But a senior provincial government official disputed Ford's characterization of the Sheppard request.
“It would be an impact on our fiscal books,” the official said. The official noted the existing transit agreement; Ford, he said, is “looking to change that deal.”
Ford said he talked to McGuinty about provincial support for child care. KPMG suggested as part of the city's core service review that the city eliminate subsidies for the 2,000 spaces for which the province does not share the cost.
Ford said he also asked for permission to sell the Toronto Community Housing Corporation's 928 single-family homes. He said he raised the subject of Exhibition Place and Ontario Place.
And he said he talked to McGuinty about public health nurses. In June, Ford drew criticism from McGuinty's health minister after he rejected two nurses the province had offered to pay for, saying he was worried the city would eventually have to pick up the tab; the province has offered three more. Ford has not expressed an opinion on the second offer.
The relationship between Ford and McGuinty is strained. In March, Ford, a Conservative, threatened to sic “Ford Nation” on McGuinty in the upcoming election if he did not provide more money to Toronto. The Liberals, meanwhile, are planning to attempt to use Ford's perceived struggles against Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak during the campaign.
Ford characterized the meeting as a “very, very good, positive conversation.” McGuinty called it “cordial, civil, productive.”
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Source: Toronto Star
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