Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow agreed to a deal that boils down to my way for the highways.
On Monday, the two leaders announced the provincial government will take over the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway while Toronto will hand full control of the Ontario Place development to the province.
The deal also includes $1.2 billion over three years for transit and shelter programs.
Provincial and city officials have been trying to find solutions to Toronto’s dire financial straits for months. They established a working group in late September to figure out how to address Toronto’s $1.5-billion budget shortfall without new taxes or cuts to front-line services.
“Toronto and Ontario have reached a historic new deal, a new deal that puts the city on the path of long-term financial system sustainability through growth,” Ford said.
“This is a structural change that will unlock billions over the next 10 years,” Chow said, arguing some of the nearly $8 billion in savings from ceding the two highways can now go toward housing and other projects.
Taking over the Gardiner and DVP means they’ll never be tolled — at least under Ford’s watch — the premier said.
Having the province take over the highways “makes sense,” said Enid Slack, a professor at the University of Toronto specializing in municipal finance.
Both were “provincial highways until the mid-'90s, when they were downloaded to the city. And there's a good argument for the province being involved in the operating and capital expenditures with those highways because they're used by people outside of Toronto,” she said.
The big savings to the city will come from not having to worry about the associated capital costs, which are “quite substantial,” she said.
Ford batted away concerns that other cities might now look for the province to upload major infrastructure, saying Toronto is “unique” due to its subway system and size.
“On a federal level, Toronto and the surrounding area represents 20 per cent of Canada's GDP. It's massive. There's nothing like it in the country,” he said.
Chow made opposition to the Ontario Place redevelopment a central piece of her mayoral campaign. She vowed to use any tool in the city’s tool box to fight the proposed spa but appears to have given up on that promise in exchange for financial relief.
“It is called Ontario Place,” Chow said. “The land belongs to the provincial government and we do not have the authority to stop the development. The future of Ontario Place, the debate is going to happen here at Queen’s Park and not at the municipal level.”
Norm Di Pasquale, the co-chair of Ontario Place For All, appears to have taken the news well. His group recently filed for an injunction to stop construction on the project.
“There was nothing for the city to cede,” he said in a post on X, noting that the province has the final say. “The fight continues!”
The deal does include one political win for the new mayor: a pledge to move the proposed underground parking garage from Ontario Place to Exhibition Place.
“Maybe that’s not the best place to go, where we had it,” Ford said. “So let’s move it. Let’s flip it over to Exhibition Stadium (and) have more open space towards the lake.”
The full terms say the province agreed to change the parking location to Exhibition Place to “improve public access to the shoreline at Ontario Place and could reduce the overall area needed for parking.”
The Ford government said it will still move the Science Centre to Ontario Place, but will explore keeping “public, community-oriented science programming” at the old site.
Ford said it’d be the city’s decision whether to put housing on the legacy site — Chow immediately said that wouldn’t happen.
Per the agreement, some of the $1.2 billion in direct funding will go toward helping the beleaguered Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT projects.
Another chunk will go to non-refugee homeless shelters and homelessness prevention — conditional on federal cash for refugees and asylum seekers.
And $300 million will go to transit safety and increasing ridership. The cash is contingent on the city adding more cops on and near transit, expanding cell coverage across the TTC, and better emergency reporting options and response timelines.
The province will also explore ways to help lower Toronto’s debt financing and get better returns on its reserve funds, potentially through the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.
In return, aside from giving up Ontario Place and adding cops on transit, Toronto has promised to advance provincial priorities on transit and increased housing density, which mostly line up with its own plans.
Within six months, both sides will itemize all the properties they own and determine which ones should be turned into housing. The city will pick a proof-of-concept “demonstration site” within 60 days and construction on “key projects” will start in 18 months.
Toronto has also made a distinctly Fordian pledge to implement Ernst & Young suggestions to improve “efficiency” by improving procurement, sharing and digitizing services, reviewing grants and free programs, reducing overtime costs, and developing proposals for revenue generation.
Metrolinx will also move forward with developing “signage locations to support non-fare revenue generation.” The premier’s office didn’t say whether naming rights could be sold, as he has planned in the past.
Ford and Chow both pressured the federal government to join the deal. There have been whispers about Ottawa getting involved but no commitments yet.
The premier singled out the issue of asylum seekers. Ottawa and Ontario have given the city millions to deal with the influx but the feds need to help get them working, Ford said.
“I go up to the north of Etobicoke and Rexdale, and those hotels, they’re packed with asylum seekers that want a better life,” he said. “That’s all they want here, but they have to get their working permit.”
Ontario has also promised to fund 55 new subway trains for the TTC’s Line 2, conditional on Ottawa matching the funding. Metrolinx would also buy 15 more trains for the Scarborough and Yonge North subway extensions.
It’s a “big deal” — but it’s hopefully just the start, Chow said.
“Over the next few years, we'll continue to examine the city's finances and (work) on Toronto's long-term financial sustainability. It’s the beginning of a journey,” she said.
Slack agreed, saying the city still needs longer-term fixes for its finances. That will have to involve all three levels of government sitting down to figure out their responsibilities, she said.
“The question of, what is the role of the province, what's the role of the federal government, what's the role of the city in all of these different areas like housing and transit? So who should be doing what, and then how do you pay for it?” she said.
For now, Ford said he was pleased that “everyone’s half-happy.”
“You know you have a good deal when both sides aren’t too happy,” he said with a chuckle. “Anyone thinks I want the DVP or the Gardiner, I don’t, but it’s our responsibility.”
