TORONTO VOTES: Fate of Sheppard East LRT depends on results of city election

Doug Ford, if he become’s Toronto’s mayor, will try to kill it.

John Tory supports completing the still-delayed $1.1-billion project, but if he wins, Scarborough councillors will attempt to get rid of it anyway.

The plot against the LRT line is being quietly led by Norm Kelly, Toronto’s deputy mayor, who hasn’t talked to Tory about his plans.

"We’ve not had a tete-a-tete on this matter," Kelly said in an interview, suggesting it may not matter if Tory, as mayor, chooses to fight for the LRT line or another planned for Finch Avenue West.

"The last chat I had with John, I tried to get across to him the nature of political life at Toronto council," where members aren’t bound by caucus discipline, and a mayor’s position on issues "will be tested just like that of any other member," Kelly said.

Scarborough councillors, through a vote in 2015, hope to convince the province to shelve the Sheppard LRT, much as they got Ontario’s government last year to scrap the LRT line it had planned to build from Kennedy station in favour of a Bloor-Danforth subway extension.

Kelly said he’s talked to Liberal MPPs in Scarborough about approaching Premier Kathleen Wynne after a city council vote, and said they seem to be on board.

"I want them collectively to join me in making another request of the premier to either commit to a subway (on Sheppard East), or delay funding of an LRT."

Kelly’s allies include Scarborough-Agincourt MPP Soo Wong who, after facing a Progressive Conservative election opponent campaigning on the issue, branded herself a "champion" for extending the Sheppard subway to McCowan Road.

"As your MPP I have listened to the community, and heard that the vast majority of you want a subway, and that is what I will continue to work for," Wong told supporters in June, promising to collaborate with Kelly and other councillors so that a decision to build a Sheppard extension would not be "forced on the local community."

This sidesteps the fact Toronto council reinstated the LRT project in 2012, when it was judged the best option for Sheppard East by an arms-length panel after public debate.

"The premier has consistently said we respect the lower-tier government, and right now council has said they want the LRT," Wong said on Friday, also conceding some Scarborough councillors don’t support the subway option.

Raymond Cho, however, said last week he thinks most Scarborough councillors will vote to reject the LRT – which would have been carrying passengers from Don Mills to east of Morningside Avenue already, had it not been shelved in 2010 – even if Tory wins.

Once a supporter of the LRT line himself, Cho, incumbent councillor for Scarborough-Rouge River Ward 42 at the east end of the route, said he’s facing constituents repeating the Ford brother’s "Subways, subways, subways" slogan, including many convinced a subway extension is coming because the Fords promised one.

"I say, ‘I want a subway on Sheppard too,’" said Cho, adding, "I will try to convince John Tory too," should Tory become mayor.

Other north Scarborough council candidates – notably Jim Karygiannis, the former Scarborough-Agincourt MP running to replace the retiring Mike Del Grande – are Sheppard subway extension supporters, and vocal residents holding pro-subway signs attended an Agincourt transit forum last month featuring Kelly, Wong and Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

Chin Lee, another incumbent councillor along the route, said he’s supporting the LRT line "as of this moment," though it isn’t shown on his campaign website’s map depicting what Toronto’s transit system will look like when planned projects are complete.

The Sheppard subway campaign is "driven by a few people in the area" though they are the "loudest voices," said Lee, who doesn’t think subway backers, given low ridership projections, can put together a convincing case.

That, he said, could mean money promised to north Scarborough for rapid transit will simply evaporate if the province chooses the "delay" option, and "I will not give away my $1.1 billion on an empty promise."

Lee, however, said he’s willing to assign the money temporarily to help finance Tory’s SmartTrack plan, which would improve rail service in his ward, though doing this might also delay the LRT project.

"I’m willing to go back to the people and ask them," he said.

Work on the LRT line is set to begin in 2017 and end in 2021.

Backers of a Sheppard subway extension – ranked in priority below a future downtown relief subway line even by Doug Ford - weren’t able to say how would be paid for or when it could be built.

"I’m looking forward to an informed debate, and all these questions will be answered," said Kelly, arguing, much as the Fords have, that Toronto needs a world-class subway system to compete against other cities.

"You govern on behalf of the future," said Kelly, who dismissed the expert panel as being "loaded on the other side," and said an expanded subway network would help people reach Scarborough Town Centre and Toronto’s other suburban hubs.

"When you do that, you give every part of the city a chance to grow."

Cho suggested a special savings bond, a lottery and a one cent increase in gasoline tax in the Greater Toronto area could raise money for transit projects there.

Kelly and Wong, however, both acknowledged many residents who spoke to them about the issue would be satisfied to see the Sheppard East LRT die, even if no subway extension is ever built.

In campaign appearances, the Fords have stressed the inconvenience LRTs present to drivers and that building "nothing at all" is preferable.

Merchants along the LRT route aren’t necessarily pro-subway, but many are worried about the lack of left-turn lanes affecting business after it’s built, said Ernie McCullough, executive director of the Sheppard East Village Business Improvement Area.

A member of council’s expert panel, McCullough said he thinks his organization’s business owners need to hear realistic plans next year for a subway option which include how to pay for it.