What’s Happening with the Hurontario LRT?

It’s been called a “game changer”, “historic” and “a coming of age for our city”. The Hurontario LRT, by all accounts, is the largest transportation project in Mississauga’s history – but it just got smaller, and has taken many by surprise.

With the main consultation process completed in 2014, and funding announced by the province in 2015, the project has been progressing slowly but surely for several years as station names get confirmed, crews work to move and upgrade above and below-ground infrastructure, modify roadways and prepare parcels of land for future construction.

But it seems not everything was set in stone, not even with Request-For-Proposals (RFP) process almost complete. This was made apparent late last week, with an unexpected announcement from Doug Ford’s Provincial government, revealing substantial changes to the length, form and scale of the Hurontario LRT project.

The announcement wasn’t just a surprise to the public, no – it seems the government had no time to discuss and give advance notice to anyone at city council, not even Mississauga’s Mayor, Bonnie Crombie. One local councillor I chatted with confirmed this lack of consultation, as well as urging me (and everyone in the city) to find out why this happened, by contacting our local MPPs.

As of publishing this article, no Mississauga MPPs have responded to my request for more information. Below is the press release, provided last Thursday by Metrolinx on both social media and their website:

(Image courtesy of Metrolinx)

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There is certainly a degree of irony to the nature of this announcement by the Ford government. By now, most of us have heard the slogan of this government, touted most often by Premier Ford himself, “For The People”, presumably meant to mean making decisions by and for all people who reside within Ontario.

This messaging is further reinforced when this government frequently touts the importance of consultation (“with the people”), and how they are holding the “biggest and best consultations, ever” in our Province’s history (think healthcare, education, environment, etc).

The messaging is certainly strong, but does it match the actions of this government? The seemingly constant state of public protest, online petitions, and outright lack of consultation in the past months, as seen again in this announcement, suggests quite the opposite. Indeed, one has to wonder what exactly led to the changes announced as part of this project? Who made the final call, and why was Mississauga left completely out of the “loop”? These are questions which, having reached out to Metrolinx and Mississauga MPPs, we are still waiting to understand.

Speaking of “loop”, let’s take a look at the project itself – here’s a comparison of what the project looked like just a few days ago (labels in red added by me), and how it has been modified, now:

Hurontario LRT layout before (left) and after (right) last Thursday’s announcement (original images courtesy of Metrolinx).

Another way to see the changes is in the infographic on Metrolinx’s website (I made sure to archive both the city and Metrolinx webpages for this project if anyone wants to take a look at how they have changed, here and here):

Key figures for the Hurontario LRT prior to (top) and following (bottom) last week’s announcement. (Image courtesy of Metrolinx)

All in all, it is approximately a  10 per cent cut to the project, in both length and number of stations. Doesn’t that seem big enough to merit some consultation with the public, or at least the stakeholders at the city level (mayor and council, local businesses, community committees)?

It comes back to the question that is at the heart of this issue – not if the changes are good or bad for the project (many on social media, myself included, actually support the removal of the loop in the short-term, as it makes for a more efficient ride north to south), but were the changes made in an appropriate fashion, and for the right reasons? If one looks to how our city, particularly our mayor, has worked with this new government in the past few months, you wouldn’t find a single example of them “playing hardball” or acting in a way which might upset the province or “put them in their bad books”.

Our previous mayor, Hazel McCallion, even endorsed Doug Ford and the PC party leading up to last year’s the election (and almost took a sweet job with the government after they won, too…)! Surely with this spirit of working “in good faith” with the government, supporting their actions and praising every announcement they made for our city should merit an open and positive relationship from the Province? Right?

With these sudden changes to the biggest transportation project in our city’s history, it doesn’t seem to be the case.

When you look to history, a darker possibility also emerges – could this decision have simply been another cut spearheaded by Doug Ford, because he personally didn’t like the project, or the way it was going? One has many examples to look to where the current Premier may have factored more than just the merits of a project or change when it came to making a decision, but also including his personal preference (or lack thereof).

One can look to the fighting between former PC party leader (followed by candidate for Peel Regional Chair, and now mayor) Patrick Brown and the cutting of Toronto city council as some recent examples which evoked much bigger controversy. When it comes to this LRT, we have numerous examples of Ford’s preference for “subways, subways, subways” and distaste for LRT or any project which takes away or interferes with the movement of cars on the road.

Could this personal preference have been a factor in the cuts to Mississauga’s project? New evidence may support this theory, as further changes have now been revealed for another LRT project, outside of Mississauga, namely the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. A cut as part of a pattern of top-down decision-making, or a change “in good faith” made for the best possible result? It seems we have more questions than answers at this point, but what do you think? Should the provincial government have consulted Mississauga residents, businesses, and city council before making these changes? Does this align with the messaging of the current Provincial government? And are these changes what’s best for our city, or another case of cuts by the government?