Premier Ford says Toronto's estimate of bike lane removal cost 'bunch of hogwash'

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the City of Toronto’s early estimate of the cost to remove three major bike lanes is “a bunch of hogwash.”

“You know it doesn’t cost $50 million,” Ford told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re going to show them how to do it for a lot less and get traffic moving.”

Last week, city staff said the province’s proposed plan to rip out bike lanes on sections of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue would cost at least $48 million.

“This estimate includes the cost of road reconstruction for sections of the streets that were recently reconstructed and would need to be rebuilt, and road resurfacing that would be required for other sections,” staff wrote in a report submitted to city council last Wednesday.

They noted the price tag does not include potential costs associated with changing or cancelling existing construction, or maintenance contracts that may be impacted by the plan.

Staff said in their report that removing the bike lanes would only result in minimal improvements in travel time.

On Monday, Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria also disputed the city’s price tag, but did not provide the province’s estimate.

“It can’t cost double the amount to remove them as it does to put them in place,” Sarkaria told reporters on Monday. He said the province would foot the bill for the plan.

On Monday, a legislative committee conducted one day of public hearings on the proposed regulation, which featured a City of Toronto official who defended the cost estimate.

“The entirety of the cost is indicative of the fact that in sections that have been recently reconstructed, there are concrete curbs separating the bike lanes from the motor vehicle traffic,” said Jacquelyn Hayward, the city’s director of planning, design and management.

“There are catch basins that have been moved as a result. In order to put back the lanes in some places, you would have to redo the roads.”

The city has said it already invested $27 million in designing and constructing the three bike lanes.

Last week, Toronto councillors passed two motions to express their opposition to province’s bike lane removal plan, requesting that the government instead work with the city to address congestion and road safety.

With files from The Canadian Press