Ford's transit plans are wasteful

To the editor:

In his first day in office, Mayor Ford proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful spending. That's not cutting waste, it was making waste.

Backtracking on Transit City wastes the milliions of dollars that has already been spent on the program.

It will also cost taxpayers unknown millions to break an existing contract with Bombardier for new light rail trains. And then, even more money will be wasted undoing the construction already completed on the Sheppard East LRT line.

Transit City proposes to bring three new light rail train lines to Etobicoke, along Finch, Eglinton and the Lakeshore.

These lines, apart from servicing the communities that surround them, would also take pressure off the already crowded Bloor/Danforth subway line, and would take thousands of cars off our streets making our commutes and our communities safer.

If Ford's plan goes through, then we in Etobicoke get nothing. However, we would still have to foot the bill for dismantling Transit City, as well as for costly new planning, environmental assessments and consultations on subway lines that only benefit Scarborough.

Transit City is already planned, paid for, and the work has begun.

Yet, Mayor Ford is trying to get us to pay millions of dollars in tax money to stop this, with no benefit to Etobicoke whatsoever. Spending money to get nothing - that is the definition of waste.

- Christopher See