Ontario's transportation minister is urging Toronto politicians to put politics aside and make a decision on transit that is in the best interest of residents.
"I would simply encourage city council, the TTC and the mayor's office to leave your politics at the door, leave your excitement and your anxiety at the door and come into the room and say ‘look the people of the City of Toronto want results'," Bob Chiarelli said during a press conference at Queen's Park on Thursday.
"They want to see shovels in the ground and it should be the transit rider first. That should be the philosophy walking into the room and that should be the philosophy coming out and further prolonged debate from the TTC collectively and or city council and or the mayor in my opinion borders on being irresponsible."
Chiarelli's words came one day after Toronto city council approved a vision for the city's transit future; allies of Mayor Rob Ford were still fuming at the lost vote and rejection of his personal vision for underground rail lines.
In a 25-18 vote on Wednesday, Toronto city council supported a transit plan that would bring rapid light rail transit systems to large stretches of the city and asked a panel of experts to consider the need for a subway in Scarborough.
However, Chiarelli said the debate is far from over and still faces scrutiny from Queen's Park.
"I want to be clear that the plan endorsed yesterday by council is still very much a work in progress," Chiarelli said.
However, he did say that the province remains committed to providing the previously promised money.
"The McGuinty government remains firm in its commitment to invest $8.4 billion in Toronto's public transit," Chiarelli said.
While TTC chair Karen Stintz and those who supported her plan were calling it a good day for Toronto transit riders, allies of Mayor Rob Ford called it an abject disappointment.
Ford himself dismissed the whole meeting as "irrelevant," saying the final say was in the province's hands anyway.
Ford spent Wednesday evening riding across the city's subway system speaking to commuters and declaring his intention to continue a fight for Eglinton Avenue's light rail transit line to be buried underground.
"The residents of Scarborough, Toronto's fastest growing region, deserve underground rapid transit - and I promised to deliver it to them. Today's vote does not change my promise," Ford wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday night.
And Ford vowed on Thursday to continue with his Sheppard Subway plan and "let the province do what it thinks right."
"The people have spoken loud and clear. Scarborough councillors. Scarborough MPPs. Everyone in Scarborough wants underground (transit). Be it an LRT or a subway. I listen to the taxpayers and I'm sure the premier will do the same," he told CP24's Stephen LeDrew.
Metrolinx is tasked with incorporating Toronto's transit plan into a province-wide strategy.
Meantime, Tim Hudak, the leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, declared his disappointment with city council's decision, saying Toronto needed underground transit to be considered a world-class city.
Toronto council supported the plan proposed by TTC chair Karen Stintz after more than 10 hours of heated debate on Wednesday. At stake was some $8.4 billion in money allocated by the province.
Stintz' proposal falls in line with Transit City – a strategy approved by the city and Metrolinx, the province's transit agency, in 2009 but shunned by Ford when he was elected mayor in 2010.
Under the new plan:
• A light rail transit line will be built along Finch Avenue West stretching from the Spadina Subway station to Humber College.
• A light rail transit line will be built along Jane Street to Kennedy Subway station with a section running underground between Back Creek Drive and Laird Drive.
• The Scarborough RT line, currently stretching from Kennedy station to McCowan Road, will be converted to light rail transit with an extension to the Malvern Town Centre as funds become available.
A group of experts will also study the benefits of extending the Sheppard subway line westward from Sheppard station to Downsview station and consider extending the Sheppard LRT eastward to the Toronto Zoo.
The plan suggests this extension would relieve ridership pressure off of the eastern portion of the Yonge-University-Spadina line.
The panel will also consider the benefits of extending the Bloor-Danforth subway line from Kennedy station to the Scarborough Town Centre and extending the Eglinton Crosstown LRT from Jane Street to Pearson Airport.
It will also consider the feasibility of a Downtown Relief Line along Lake Shore Boulevard.
Coun. Michael Thompson, a Ford ally, described the decision as a disappointment for the Scarborough region, which has been expecting an underground light rapid transit line.
"The overwhelming majority of Scarborough residents felt that you should put something underground, whether or not it was a subway or an LRT vehicle. That hasn't happened," said Thompson.
Ken Greenberg, a city planning consultant, said on Thursday that 49 of North America's 50 biggest cities use light rail as part of their transit strategy and says it is important that Toronto incorporate LRTs, subways and other forms of transit, where warranted.
"The issue really became whether the City of Toronto should spend all of its resources on one line in a project that had more capacity than what was needed… versus a whole network that would serve hundreds of thousand of more passengers in all parts the city," Greenberg told CTV Canada AM.
"In the end I think council decided it was more sensible to use a range of technologies, including light rail… whereas the mayor had tried to demonize light rail, bizarrely. The people said we need a tool kit that has a variety of tools in it."
Despite the clear message sent by the vote, Ford refused to acknowledge that his Eglinton plan was dead, noting on Wednesday that it was now up to the province to make the ultimate decision.
"The premier, I'm very confident, is going to build subways," he told reporters after the vote. "Technically speaking that whole meeting was irrelevant because it is a provincial project."
But on Thursday Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty shot down Ford's comments.
"I confirmed once again that I needed the approval of the council," McGuinty said during a media scrum. "Should he receive that, great, we're off to the races. Should he not receive that and council decides they want to pursue another decision that is something I feel obligated to consider."
