{"id":11347,"date":"2010-05-24T13:19:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T17:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=11347"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:06:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:06:37","slug":"lorinc-is-eglinton-a-tunnel-to-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/24\/lorinc-is-eglinton-a-tunnel-to-nowhere\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Is Eglinton a tunnel to nowhere?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3123\/3138001676_514e511c94_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/uploads\/toronto\/feature-lorinc.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"85\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been trying to comprehend what Mayor David Miller means when he predicts the Liberals\u2019 funding delay means the $4.6 billion Eglinton LRT may only extend \u201cfrom Leaside to Forest Hill,\u201d and I confess I\u2019ve not had much success.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there\u2019s the obvious connotation \u2013 due to the slow-down imposed by Queen\u2019s Park, only these silver-spoon neighbourhoods will reap the benefits of Transit City Lite, while the great suburban unwashed can just keep on bussin\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The alternative reality, according to Metrolinx spokesperson Vanessa Thomas, is that the Eglinton LRT tunnel will extend from Brentcliffe Dr. (one east of Laird) to Black Creek Drive (about half a kilometer west of Keele). So either Forest Hill is much larger than the realtors thought or the mayor needs a geography lesson.<\/p>\n<p>Metrolinx also says it\u2019s going to order the tunneling equipment next month, and will be constructing the eastern and western launch sites between 2011 and 2012, with boring to commence thereafter, for a total outlay to 2015 of $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Aha! the mayor cries. The post-2015 funding isn\u2019t even in the province\u2019s long-term budget. Is he implying the Government of Ontario may ante up to bore a 6.4-km bowling alley under mid-town Toronto and then turn off the spigots before the remaining $2.8 billion is spent?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, says Miller spokesperson Stuart Green, that\u2019s precisely what he\u2019s suggesting. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty huge leap of faith that that money will be guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Sure, one can project the worst-case outcome on any forward-looking scenario. But is the completion of the Eglinton LRT really \u201ca leap of faith\u201d? Please.<\/p>\n<p>Come 2016, Ontario\u2019s economy will be back in full swing, easing pressure on provincial coffers and making those future budget cycles substantially less painful.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Tim Hudak\u2019s Tories regain power, either in 2011 or 2015, will they want to take responsibility for burying all that taxpayer money by cancelling the as-yet unbuilt surface portions? I know, I know: Harris &amp; Co. squandered $100 million on the aborted Eglinton subway back in the day. But my guess is that a party looking to re-assert its fiscal discipline will prefer not to wear that one twice.<\/p>\n<p>Take another regrettable scenario: Rob Ford becomes mayor, and begins agitating for the outright cancellation of Transit City. Now say you\u2019re Dalton McGuinty. Is Mr. Customer Service\u2122 a gift from the gods? Absolutely.<\/p>\n<p>With council in what I assume will be a state of civil war, Metrolinx emerges as a beacon of urban-minded sanity, delivering transit solutions backed by such bastions of glassy-eyed radicalism as the Board of Trade. Ford, the premier will gleefully tell us at every opportunity, is what you get if you vote for Hudak in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>How about gaming out a George Smitherman scenario? The Once and Future Mayor is releasing his transit plan Friday, and it will have the predictable verbiage about taking a hard look at all these projects, blah, blah, blah. But while the tunnel construction proceeds, a Smitherman-run council will have an entire term to figure out how not to reprise St. Clair West\/Yorkville\/Roncesvalles on the new TC lines.<\/p>\n<p>Much more importantly, the Eglinton LRT passes through the ridings of n fewer than nine of Smitherman\u2019s former caucus colleagues, including three cabinet ministers (Tony Ruprect, Mike Colle, Hon. Eric Hoskins, Hon. Kathleen Wynne, Donna Cansfield, Laura Albanese, David Caplan, Lorenzo Berardinetti, Hon. Brad Duguid). And let\u2019s not kid ourselves: they all want to bring home the transit bacon.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it\u2019s important to precisely understand Metrolinx\u2019 role in all this. Last week saw the mayor squaring off against CEO Rob Prichard, who has emerged as a political actor in the Transit City melodrama. But this isn\u2019t just about a battle of the alpha males. Quite apart from the policy arguments around regional transit authorities, Metrolinx &#8212; with its fancy-schmancy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolinx.com\/en\/board_bios.aspx#PSmith\">board of directors<\/a> &#8212; functions quite deliberately as an impressive example of elite accommodation.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to overstate the board\u2019s influence, but Queen\u2019s Park will think twice before it makes this blue chip crowd look like a bunch of monkeys by cancelling such a huge undertaking mid-stream.<\/p>\n<p>So in the end, the \u201cLeaside to Forest Hill\u201d zinger may have been an appealing &#8211;though physically inaccurate &#8212; sound-bite. But you don\u2019t have to be a Pollyanna to conclude that Miller\u2019s doomsday prediction about the Eglinton LRT is nothing more than a rhetorical tunnel to nowhere.<\/p>\n<p>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stignygaard\/3138001676\/\">Stig Nygaard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been trying to comprehend what Mayor David Miller means when he predicts the Liberals\u2019 funding delay means the $4.6 billion Eglinton LRT may only extend \u201cfrom Leaside to Forest Hill,\u201d and I confess I\u2019ve not had much success. Yes, there\u2019s the obvious connotation \u2013 due to the slow-down imposed by Queen\u2019s Park, only these<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/24\/lorinc-is-eglinton-a-tunnel-to-nowhere\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;LORINC: Is Eglinton a tunnel to nowhere?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[535,15109,15107,984,3216,6917,425,4128,15110,3828,15101,851,13129,5995,15100,8856,15106,15104,426,8533,15102,636,15099,2306,316,44,227,11804,3004,4047,8893,15105,19,5045,15108,3478,391,15103,397],"class_list":["post-11347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-transit","tag-alpha","tag-blue-chip","tag-brad-duguid","tag-ceo","tag-dalton-mcguinty","tag-david-caplan","tag-david-miller","tag-donna-cansfield","tag-eglinton-lrt-tunnel","tag-eglinton-subway","tag-eric-hoskins","tag-forest-hill","tag-future-mayor","tag-government-of-ontario","tag-harris-co","tag-kathleen-wynne","tag-laura-albanese","tag-lorenzo-berardinetti","tag-mayor","tag-metrolinx","tag-mike-colle","tag-ontario","tag-political-actor","tag-premier","tag-queen","tag-queens-park","tag-rob-ford","tag-rob-prichard","tag-spokesperson","tag-stuart-green","tag-tim-hudak","tag-tony-ruprect","tag-toronto","tag-transit-city","tag-transit-solutions","tag-tritton-sound-bite-speakers","tag-usd","tag-vanessa-thomas","tag-yorkville"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LORINC: Is Eglinton a tunnel to nowhere? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/24\/lorinc-is-eglinton-a-tunnel-to-nowhere\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Is Eglinton a tunnel to nowhere? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been trying to comprehend what Mayor David Miller means when he predicts the Liberals\u2019 funding delay means the $4.6 billion Eglinton LRT may only extend \u201cfrom Leaside to Forest Hill,\u201d and I confess I\u2019ve not had much success. 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