The proposed Sheppard subway extension should be funded by road tolls and user fees, the former chair of the TTC says.
“The entire line could be funded for $3.7 billion,” Gordon Chong told CityNews on Thursday.
“I’m hoping city council can set aside the ideological differences that have obviously appeared in the past few days and look at this and realize the Sheppard subway has been on the books since 1980. It didn’t just appear...from Mayor Rob Ford’s forehead.”
His report to be reviewed by the executive committee on Feb. 13 suggests that subways will deliver the greatest value for money along the Sheppard Corridor over the long run.
Support for the report was mixed at city hall Thursday, with one councillor questioning whether it was a plan at all.
"This is a plan about making a plan but it doesn't actually show us how we can build a Sheppard subway," Coun. Josh Matlow told CityNews.
Budget chief Mike del Grande, who represents the Scarborough-Agincourt riding, slammed critics who "aren't from Scarborough."
"A lot of the critics don't come to Scarborough. It's very easy for people who have good transportation to wish for all kinds of things. We don't want that kind of streetcar-on-rails out here. We feel that underground is the way to go," del Grande said.
Chong, now chairman of Toronto Transit Infrastructure Ltd., said the subway would only be financially successful if extra fees, like road tolls and a transit-focused sales tax, were implemented. The report also proposed increasing parking costs.
Last May, the mayor said he would not use road tolls to pay for the Sheppard subway expansion. At the time, the plan to extend the Sheppard line east to the Scarborough Town Centre and west to Downsview station was estimated to cost $4.2 billion. It would be funded by the province, Ottawa and the private sector, Ford said.
The city is also grappling with the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown light-rail transit line. Ford supports keeping the entire LRT line underground, while other councillors, including current TTC chair Karen Stintz, have called for a portion of the line to be elevated so that the extra money saved could be spent on other transit, including the Sheppard project.
Both the Sheppard subway extension and the Eglinton LRT will be debated at the executive committee on Feb. 13.