Scarborough subway confirmed by Toronto council

In a close 24-20 vote and a major victory for Mayor Rob Ford, city council has confirmed its approval of a Scarborough subway that could cost Toronto taxpayers $1 billion over the next 30 years.

The decision Tuesday evening means a fully funded seven-stop LRT is off the table as a possible replacement for the aging Scarborough SRT. It also means the SRT will probably continue to operate while the three-stop subway is built.

“I don’t know if I could do a back flip but if I could I would,” the mayor said after the vote.

Councillors who voted against the subway said it will mean higher debt, taxes and reduced transit services for other parts of the city.

Vowing to campaign on subways again in next year’s municipal election, Ford promised to go after planned LRTs on Finch West and Sheppard East.

He thanked the provincial government for its $1.48-billion contribution and Ottawa for $660 million to “do what we wanted to do from Day 1.”

But in a decision he said kept him awake at night, the penny-pinching mayor also supported a 1.6-per-cent property tax levy (to be phased in over three years) to pay Toronto’s share of the subway, estimated to cost between $2.5 billion and $3 billion.

Ford had repeatedly said he could never support a tax increase higher than 1 per cent.

While the tax hike is “unfortunate,” Ford said he’ll seek a public/private partnership to keep the increase to a minimum.

The transit levy will come on top of a general tax increase still to be decided by council.

The transit tax will cost the average household about $41 a year once it’s fully phased in, contributing $745 million to the $910 million city share of the subway. A development charge hike will raise $165 million, city manager Joe Pennachetti told council.

Many councillors said the 10-kilometre extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway, three stops from Kennedy station north to Sheppard Ave. E., involved too many unknowns.

There was also concern that the 30-year subway debt would squeeze out other priority projects such as the downtown relief subway and repairs to the Gardiner Expressway.

“I support subways but I don’t support self-immolation,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.

“Subways make sense over the long-term but this deal is the wrong deal. There are just too many questions,” he said, referring to potential cost overruns, maintenance and operating expenses that would all be paid by the city.

But Ford told council he wasn’t worried about overruns, “because it’s my head that’s on the chopping block. I’ll make sure every penny is accounted for.”

TTC chair Karen Stintz, who also supported the Scarborough subway, warned pro-LRT councillors that a vote for LRT was a vote for a different subway option — a shorter, cheaper above-ground subway proposed last month by Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray that would run only as far as the Scarborough City Centre from Kennedy station.

Stintz said the Murray plan wouldn’t provide Scarborough residents with the subway they need because it wouldn’t connect with the future Sheppard East LRT.

She said this isn’t the first time the city will raise property taxes and incur debt to build transit. “We’re not going to fund all our transit needs through property taxes alone, but I am pleased that the City of Toronto is now a city that will commit to revenue tools to build new infrastructure.”

The vote that came following a full day of questions and debate about subway vs. LRT costs and benefits, saw several councillors switch their support.

Scarborough’s Paul Ainslie, a member of the mayor’s executive committee, drew the derision of Ford and his supporters when he said he couldn’t support the subway because he feared it would ultimately result in a 5-per-cent property tax increase.

“He should not be representing the people of Scarborough,” an angry Councillor Doug Ford told reporters, adding Ainslie would pay for that decision in next year’s municipal election.

“When he knocks on the door next year for the election we’re going to make it very clear he does not support the people of his area,” said Ford. “He supports LRT.”