Friends,
I have reviewed the Mayor's transit announcement and I want to tell you how deeply disappointed I am.
Essentially, the Mayor has proposed to:
1. Cancel three Light Rail Transit projects that already had provincial approval, (Sheppard East, Finch West, and the replacement and extension of the Scarborough RT.)
2. Bury the planned above-ground portion of the Eglinton LRT line. Extened this LRT line to Scarborough Town Centre.
3. Get provincial permission to use the private sector to build a subway on Sheppard using a complex and expensive "tax increment financing" scheme. This scheme means the City still has to pay but the private sector will front the money. It is still $4.2 Billion in debt, but more complicated and expensive.
4. Give back $330 million in funding from the federal government that would have paid for the Sheppard LRT. (Although he hopes the federal government will allow the City to put it toward subway construction.)
5. Pay an undisclosed amount (certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars) in penalties for cancelling the three LRT lines.
Toronto is out several hundred million dollars and will get 25 kilometres of rapid transit instead of the previously approved and funded 52 kilometre plan. To see what this looks like on a map click here: http://www.torontoenvironment.org/sites/tea/files/images/TEA_Transit_Com... .
I have grave doubts about the tax increment financing scheme so I did some rough calculations of how it would work.
It proposes that a private company borrow the money to build the subway. The City repays them by giving them the extra tax revenue that results from higher property values in the area where the subway is built. However, to raise enough money to pay the debt and interest charges would require that up to 100,000 new condominium units be built along Sheppard Avenue. Far fewer than 10,000 units are built in the entire City of Toronto in a boom year.
Worse-still, because almost all of this tax revenue would go to paying for the subway, there would be no money for parks, recreation centres, policing fire and ambulance service, snow removal, or any other City service the new residents would need. The rest of us would see big tax increases to cover those costs. I would guess at least 10%. No one will agree to hundreds of new condo towers on Sheppard. No one believes every condo in Toronto built for over a decade will be built on Sheppard. No one wants big tax increases to pay for one small piece of subway.
There is still an opportunity to correct this mistake. The agreement signed with the province is non-binding and still requires approval from City Council. You can click here to read it: /data/March - Memorandum of Understanding.pdf
Many Councillors oppose the plan. Many community organizations are speaking against this plan. One that I recommend is www.TTCriders.ca. I urge you to speak up too.
Sincerely,
Gord
Gord Perks
City Councillor
Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
2nd Floor, Suite A14
Toronto, Ontario M5H 2N2
416-392-7919
councillor_perks@toronto.ca