City council approval’s still required but Toronto Mayor John Tory calls a transit expansion agreement with the province, good for residents and for the city’s finances.

In return for Queen’s Park dropping plans to take control of the subway, city staff find  the proposed ‘Ontario Line’ is ”viable.”

”This plan would see us (city) work together with other levels of government to build more transit, including the Ontario Line which will provide real relief for our existing subway system, especially the Yonge Street subway line, and to build the Bloor-Danforth subway extension further into Scarborough,” Tory announced.

”The city for its part will be able to spend the more than $5-billion it had previously budgeted for transit expansion, towards urgently needed state of good repair and to push ahead with other lines in our council approved transit network plan not currently funded, such as the Eglinton East LRT and Waterfront transit,” the mayor added.

The agreement calls for the Ontario Line to be completed by the end of 2027, the Scarborough subway extension and Yonge subway extension into Richmond Hill by 2029/30 and Eglinton West Crosstown LRT to Renforth Drive near Pearson Airport by 2030/31.