Mayor Rob Ford's Sheppard subway bills mounting
March 12, 1012 Toronto Star
Tess KalinowskiTransportation Reporter
Mayor Rob Ford may be dipping into his office budget again this year for more consulting fees incurred in his attempt to come up with a financing plan to extend the Sheppard subway.
Metrolinx hasn't sent the city a bill yet, but it says Toronto Transportation Infrastructure Ltd. owes the provincial agency $44,000 in consulting fees.
TTIL is the dormant TTC consulting arm the mayor pressed into action last year under the direction of his subway financing chief, Gordon Chong. It was supposed to come up with a plan to finance the subway.
Friday's publication of city councillors' office expenses showed that Ford spent $30,000 to help pay another TTIL consultant, Chong's appointed project manager Joanne Kennelly.
The payment formed the bulk of the mayor's $44,995 office expenses in 2011.
Metrolinx said it has been waiting to send a bill until TTIL confirms that work on a benefits case analysis (BCA) by transportation consultants Steer Davies Gleave has been completed.
It is aware that TTIL doesn't have any more money. Asked how it plans to collect on the bill, an email sent by a spokewoman said, “Metrolinx and the City of Toronto will continue to work together on this matter.”
Metrolinx also said that the work is not part of Chong's recent report recommending road tolls and other taxes be used to fund the subway.
The unpublished BCA looked at four subway options for Sheppard, including ridership forecasts, preliminary order of magnitude costing and transportation user benefit calculations. It was designed to provide information on the potential return on investment for each subway option, said Metrolinx.
City council will decide on March 21 whether to pursue Ford's plans to extend the Sheppard line east to the Scarborough Civic Centre and west of Yonge St. to Downsview Station or whether it will support a return to a road-level LRT for Sheppard East. Extending the subway one stop to Victoria Park is estimated to cost about $1 billion, around the same amount as an LRT that would go the entire distance.
An outside expert panel is expected to recommend the LRT option even as the mayor continues to insist that the public is demanding subways.
The $44,000 in consulting work was covered by an agreement between Metrolinx and TTIL that capped expenses at $88,000.
Metrolinx said that the international transportation consulting company has been paid in full.
“It is important to remember that BCA work for projects across the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area are meant to be a collaborative process, which usually involves partnerships with Metrolinx and various municipalities,” said the email to the Star.
Chong told the Star's Royson James on Thursday that he figured he was owed about $24,000 for work he did since TTIL ran out of money in the fall. He said he doesn't expect to ever collect the funds.
When it was kick-started last year under the direction of Ford's brother councillor Doug Ford and Scarborough councillor Norm Kelly, TTIL had about $160,000 in the kitty. That was spent on legal fees and salaries.
No biggie. A 44K here, a 500K there, here a K, there a K, everywhere a K K. Ole Robbie has a Gravy Farm eee-I, eee-I, oh.
C'mon everybody sing it: An oink, oink here and an oink, oink there, everywhere an oink, oink........
March 12, 1012 Toronto Star
Tess KalinowskiTransportation Reporter
Mayor Rob Ford may be dipping into his office budget again this year for more consulting fees incurred in his attempt to come up with a financing plan to extend the Sheppard subway.
Metrolinx hasn't sent the city a bill yet, but it says Toronto Transportation Infrastructure Ltd. owes the provincial agency $44,000 in consulting fees.
TTIL is the dormant TTC consulting arm the mayor pressed into action last year under the direction of his subway financing chief, Gordon Chong. It was supposed to come up with a plan to finance the subway.
Friday's publication of city councillors' office expenses showed that Ford spent $30,000 to help pay another TTIL consultant, Chong's appointed project manager Joanne Kennelly.
The payment formed the bulk of the mayor's $44,995 office expenses in 2011.
Metrolinx said it has been waiting to send a bill until TTIL confirms that work on a benefits case analysis (BCA) by transportation consultants Steer Davies Gleave has been completed.
It is aware that TTIL doesn't have any more money. Asked how it plans to collect on the bill, an email sent by a spokewoman said, “Metrolinx and the City of Toronto will continue to work together on this matter.”
Metrolinx also said that the work is not part of Chong's recent report recommending road tolls and other taxes be used to fund the subway.
The unpublished BCA looked at four subway options for Sheppard, including ridership forecasts, preliminary order of magnitude costing and transportation user benefit calculations. It was designed to provide information on the potential return on investment for each subway option, said Metrolinx.
City council will decide on March 21 whether to pursue Ford's plans to extend the Sheppard line east to the Scarborough Civic Centre and west of Yonge St. to Downsview Station or whether it will support a return to a road-level LRT for Sheppard East. Extending the subway one stop to Victoria Park is estimated to cost about $1 billion, around the same amount as an LRT that would go the entire distance.
An outside expert panel is expected to recommend the LRT option even as the mayor continues to insist that the public is demanding subways.
The $44,000 in consulting work was covered by an agreement between Metrolinx and TTIL that capped expenses at $88,000.
Metrolinx said that the international transportation consulting company has been paid in full.
“It is important to remember that BCA work for projects across the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area are meant to be a collaborative process, which usually involves partnerships with Metrolinx and various municipalities,” said the email to the Star.
Chong told the Star's Royson James on Thursday that he figured he was owed about $24,000 for work he did since TTIL ran out of money in the fall. He said he doesn't expect to ever collect the funds.
When it was kick-started last year under the direction of Ford's brother councillor Doug Ford and Scarborough councillor Norm Kelly, TTIL had about $160,000 in the kitty. That was spent on legal fees and salaries.
No biggie. A 44K here, a 500K there, here a K, there a K, everywhere a K K. Ole Robbie has a Gravy Farm eee-I, eee-I, oh.
C'mon everybody sing it: An oink, oink here and an oink, oink there, everywhere an oink, oink........
