It may seem odd to share with Northern Ontarians a recent article I wrote for the Toronto Star about a transportation agency in Southern Ontario.\u00a0 But the reasons are many and my concern from a northern viewpoint is extreme because this politically-driven juggernaut has been expanding its empire out of sight \u2013 with billions of our tax dollars \u2013 through its links to other agencies, including the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC).<\/p>\n
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As I explained to Toronto Star readers, Metrolinx is an octopus-like agency that is sliding its tentacles into so many questionable areas in doing the bidding of Premier Doug Ford and heaven only knows which corporate \u201cfriends of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This is a publicly-funded agency that, by the count of the Office of the Auditor-General in 2019, employed 78 communications, government relations, and community relations staffers \u2013 more than are employed by all of North America\u2019s Big Seven freight railroads, VIA Rail and Amtrak combined.\u00a0 Examining the annual Ontario Sunshine List (the number of employees making $100,000 or more annually) has grown from 90 in 2009 to 1,144 in 2020.<\/p>\n
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Northerners should be especially concerned because Metrolinx is gradually taking control of various aspects of the ONTC, including the $5-million series of four so-called initial business cases for the relaunch \u2013 if ever \u2013 of the Northlander<\/em> passenger train axed under suspicious circumstances by the McGuinty Liberals in 2012.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ll have more to say on this front in the near future.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my warning to Torontonians, which applies equally to Northern Ontarians.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now that the Metrolinx octopus has said it will slide its tentacles under Queen Street and rip it open for five years of construction for its Ontario Line, a few Torontonians are becoming alarmed.\u00a0 It\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This provincial predator was dangerous when hatched by Dalton McGuinty in 2006.\u00a0 It has turned deadly as Doug Ford\u2019s government has inflated it through various development industry schemes and sleight-of-hand public-private partnerships (P3s).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A recent Star editorial suggested Toronto City Council call on Metrolinx \u201cto have another crack at its plan.\u201d\u00a0 With Metrolinx, this is like asking a shark to reconsider before it dines on you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Metrolinx was never required.\u00a0 Many said so at a \u201cblue sky expert roundtable\u201d session the Harris government had me design and host at the Royal York Hotel in 2002.\u00a0 That was after they slashed provincial transit funding and then thought twice as they faced an election.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Four attendees destined for senior Metrolinx positions agreed GO Transit should be expanded to play a larger role in regional transportation, leaving local transit to municipal decision-makers and avoiding the creation of another layer of bureaucracy.\u00a0 But it still was spawned after McGuinty was elected in 2003.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Metrolinx has always been voracious and vicious.\u00a0 Its first chair wrote a memo advising staff to \u201csalt\u201d their public consultation sessions with supporters to avoid having their plans \u201chijacked by nimbies or local politicians on the make.\u201d\u00a0 He denied it when a reporter got a copy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These Liberal Metrolinx empire builders were replaced by Ford versions after the 2018 election.\u00a0 But not all.\u00a0 One carryover is behind the Ontario Line, which he crafted to replace a TTC heavy rail subway plan that sat on the shelf for decades.\u00a0 To use a bit of Metrolinx bafflegab, this \u201cembedded consultant\u201d has an automated light rail fixation, so the subway was replaced by an automated mini-metro.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is supposed to divert traffic from the Bloor-Danforth and Yonge subways by wandering through downtown between Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre.\u00a0 It copies a Montreal P3 project that has destroyed Canada\u2019s only electrified commuter rail line, ripped open sections of the city and imported rolling stock from India.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Whatever the technology, there is simply no need for the Ontario Line; there is a cheaper and faster way to deliver all we\u2019ve been promised it will deliver.\u00a0 It\u2019s a GO plan from 1985 when another vote-chasing scheme known as Network 2011 was trundled before voters.\u00a0 Designed by the TTC and endorsed by the province, it called for a Downtown Relief Line heavy rail subway plus others on Sheppard East and Eglinton West<\/p>\n <\/p>\n GO proposed connecting and boosting frequency on the inner sections of its rush-hour-only Georgetown and Richmond Hill commuter rail services, diverting the latter up the CP Don Branch from Union Station to Leaside.\u00a0 It could have been extended to Don Mills on a CN line the City of Toronto has since turned into a pathway.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conventional commuter trains plying this route would have eliminated the need for Network 2011\u2019s expensive subways, intercepting riders at points where the rail lines crossed the streets to be served by the subways.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Recast to reflect changes that have occurred in 36 years, this plan still makes operational and financial sense.\u00a0 Furthermore, Metrolinx now owns the CP Don Branch but is proposing to convert it into a single-track yard to store GO trains nose-to-tail, elephant-style.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering about the public cost of all these promised projects, have no fear.\u00a0 Metrolinx issued a puff piece recently setting the total cost \u2013 for now \u2013 at $75 billion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I could go on, but let me put it succinctly:\u00a0 \u201cStop the Ontario Line now!\u201d\u00a0 And replace out-of-control Metrolinx with a transparent, accountable agency staffed by professionals with real-world experience, not resumes with the embarrassing question marks buffed off to make them look like pros.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The costs to date for the Ontario Line are sunk and can never be recovered.\u00a0 But spending more on it would be even more fiscally irresponsible and strategically deadly in a transportation sense.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With all that is riding economically, socially and environmentally on our transportation decisions today, we can\u2019t afford that risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It may seem odd to share with Northern Ontarians a recent article I wrote for the Toronto Star about a transportation agency in Southern Ontario.\u00a0 But the reasons are many 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