Mayor Rob Ford won't predict outcome of Scarborough transit vote

Mayor Rob Ford won’t predict the outcome of another looming city hall debate about whether to replace the aging Scarborough RT with an LRT or one of two subway options now on the table.

“The votes are all over the place. I can’t predict it right now. But I know one thing … people have been loud and clear about subways … the Scarborough councillors they’re dead, they will not get re-elected if they vote for LRTS,” Ford said Monday.

City councillors are expected to decide next month whether Toronto will support one of two subway plans – one designed by the TTC to run up McCowan Rd. to Sheppard Ave., or a provincially proposed elevated subway along a route similar to the SRT. They could also abide by an existing agreement with Metrolinx to use $1.4 billion in provincial funding to build an LRT.

The mayor said he believes Ottawa is also prepared to commit to the Scarborough project.

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m very optimistic the feds are going to come to the table … We’ll get everyone together and at the end of the day we’re getting people what the people want in Scarborough,” he said.

Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledged her minority government and city council are not on the same page when it comes to which Scarborough subway should be built.

But, she said, “It’s time to get moving.”

Monday was the first time reporters have been able to question Wynne on the subway plan announced earlier this month by Transportation Minister Glen Murray.

"We've listened, we've asked city council, we've had this discussion for many, many months and we've got $1.4 billion on the table … and so we are going to move ahead. If there is more money that comes from another level of government then we have a different conversation,” she said.

Meantime, councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) released a letter asking council to support an “evidence-based and fiscally responsible plan,” for an LRT.

Murray said that he’s confident council will support his plan to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway 6.4 kilometres from Kennedy Station to the Scarborough City Centre with a single stop in between at Lawrence Ave. East.

“I continue to be optimistic … I think most of council will be on the same page,” he said.

With files from Richard J. Brennan and Tess Kalinowski