Stop hostile takeover of Toronto subway system: Ontario NDP Transit critic to Ford

QUEEN’S PARK — Jessica Bell, Ontario NDP Transit critic, is calling on Doug Ford to slam the brakes on his hostile takeover of Toronto’s subway system that will drag transit backwards decades.

Today, the Conservatives introduced legislation that fast tracks Ford’s scheme to take control of Toronto’s subway. Ford is tabling that legislation before the city and the province have concluded negotiations about any potential changes.

“It’s wrong for Doug Ford to plow ahead with his hostile takeover of the Toronto subway system without any regard for what the people who built, paid for, and use it have to say,” said Bell. “No one voted to make Doug Ford conductor of the Toronto subway system, but that’s exactly how he’s acting.

“With hundreds of millions in planning costs and shovels poised to go into the ground on critical projects, Doug Ford is ripping up existing plans and starting over with a scheme dreamed up on the back of a napkin.

“Subways are crowded, buses are late, and our transit systems are in serious need of investment and expansion. Instead of making things better and building on work that’s already been done, Doug Ford is making things so much worse.”

The Conservatives’ legislation comes after Ford backtracked on a planned increase to the city’s transit transfer to municipalities, which will cost the TTC $1.1 billion — money earmarked for critical repairs and maintenance.

“The TTC belongs to Toronto — we’ve built it, and we should control its future,” said Bell. “Let’s not let a premier with a vendetta against Toronto and a back-of-the-napkin plan take us all the way back to square one.”