UPDATE: Ford loses motion to defer transit proposal.
Mayor Rob Ford lost his attempt to have debate on the city's transit plans deferred at Wednesday's special meeting of Toronto Council.
Staff file photo/NICK PERRY
Toronto Council has rejected a move by Mayor Rob Ford to defer the whole transit debate for a month - setting the stage for the possible defeat of the mayor's vision of a fully-underground Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT line, and the eventual end of his plan to build subways along Sheppard Avenue.
Twenty-four councillors opposed Ford's motion at the special council meeting Wednesday, Feb. 8, when Ford spoke for the first time this week on what some of his allies have called a "coup" by TTC Chair Karen Stintz and council's left.
Stintz has made a motion that would return Toronto's transit infrastructure future to the one delineated in Transit City. This would see the eastern end of the Eglinton LRT line, east of Laird Drive, built on the surface rather than underground, and would see about $1.9 billion going toward building a light rail line along Finch West.
She would defer for a month any decision on the future of the Sheppard subway, handing the question to a special task force.
Ford told councillors they didn't have enough information to change course.
"We have no evidence," he said. "I guess we're here to listen to each other and decide who sounds better. We could listen to the people of Toronto. The people of Toronto have spoken loud and clear - every single poll that has come out, people say they want Subway City. They don't want Streetcar City. They don't want Transit City, they don't want David Miller's plan."
The vote on the final motion is expected to be close, favouring Stintz' proposal.
Ford's supporters lined up behind him. York West Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti spoke directly to councillors who might be "waffling" on the issue.
"I'd like to plead with those who are waffling on the item to at least support deferral," said Mammoliti. "There's no difference between what is in front of us now and Transit City."
But Stintz and her supporters made the case for a swift decision.
"We have had one year of deferrals, delays - the mayor has not brought this to council and he should have after he made the announcement (that Transit City is dead), that he should have after he signed the memorandum of understanding with the province. He had a duty to bring the MOU to council as soon as possible," said St. Paul's Councillor Joe Mihevc.
Don Valley East Councillor Shelley Carroll said that a 30-day delay wouldn't lead to anything more then "a lot of mendacity."
"Some call it messaging - some call it explaining - but let's be honest, it's a lot of mendacity," she said. "My, that's a big word. I looked it up. It means more fables. More fabrication. More fairy tales. More falsehoods, more lies, more prevarication, more long stories about what may happen and more whoppers about the evils of LRTs. There will be a lot of messaging and mendacity to try and win a political fight. We heard we should stop the politics but the 30 days is really only for politics."
Stintz pointed out that her motion still made the most sense.
"I want to support the mayor on subways, so let's agree on the Sheppard subway, and that's why we're going to defer the Sheppard subway," she said.
"That's a campaign commitment by the mayor because subways are important to the mayor. So it was fair to say to the mayor let's defer that portion. But Eglinton is under construction right now. We need to make a decision on Eglinton and Finch right now. There is nothing to change in 30 days."
The final vote on Ford's motion was 24-19.
The debate continues.