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Seven provincial candidates went to a transit advocacy rally on Wednesday, where they signed a large fake cheque and committed — if elected — to opening the long-delayed Eglinton Crosstown LRT, and supporting better and more transparent funding of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).
“I’m so happy to see so many people turn out to demand action, accountability, and answers about why the Eglinton LRT Crosstown isn’t open yet,” Chloe Tangpongrush, candidate for the Green Party of Ontario in Toronto—St. Paul’s and a Toronto Metropolitan University student, told OTR.
Tangpongrush told OTR she was glad to see candidates across party lines come together on the need for transparency and follow-through on transit promises.
“It’s desperately needed at a time when more people are taking the transit, but the system is suffering (for) decades, from the state of good repair backlog and a lack of funding,” said Tangpongrush.
Roughly 30 people gathered at the corner of Yonge and Eglinton in -12 C weather, including rally organizers, who held up a mock cheque with a 50 per cent operating subsidy from the provincial government and cut ribbons to parody the opening that still hasn’t happened of the Eglinton LRT station.
“Ontarians can’t afford to be paying more for their transit,” Tangpongrush said. “We need that kind of operating funding to fill in the gap.”
The Eglinton Crosstown was supposed to open in 2020, with 25 stops between Kennedy and Mount Dennis stations, an idea first conceived in a 1985 TTC plan called Network 2011. The Toronto Star reports that the cost of the unfulfilled project is now $12.6 billion.
This provincial election is a chance for advocacy group TTCriders to call on provincial parties to demand accountability and transparency for the delay of the Eglinton Crosstown, Nigel Morton, TTCriders campaign manager, said in an interview before the rally.
“The fact that construction has taken so long, this lack of transparency, the amount of money that’s been spent on it, while other projects are not getting any funding — these are things worth talking about, especially in an election,” Morton said.
The LRT construction has impacted many businesses along Eglinton.
“You don’t really see as many people as (there) used to be,” said Jason McDonald, owner of the International Hair Salon in Little Jamaica.
McDonald says the construction is finished in his area but the remnants left his community desolate with fewer people walking by.
On The Record identified seven candidates at the rally, they are:
- Jill Andrew (NDP, Toronto—St. Paul’s)
- Mark Bekkering (Green, Scarborough Southwest)
- Linnea Lofstrom-Abary (NDP, Don Valley West)
- Jeanne McGuire (Communist, Humber River – Black Creek)
- Stephanie Smyth (Liberal, Toronto —St. Paul’s)
- Chloe Tangpongrush (Green, Toronto—St. Paul’s)
- Vince Gasparro (Liberal, Eglinton Lawrence)
