COMMITMENTS ON TRANSIT SOUGHT AS VOTE DRAWS NEAR

LIBERALS AND PCS BOTH PLEDGE A SHEPPARD SUBWAY EXTENSION

Ontario's election day is coming, and provincial parties are apparently willing to pour billions into new transit projects for Scarborough.

Getting or keeping the area's six seats may depend on how much residents trust Liberals, New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives to build the Eglinton East Light Rail Transit line or a Sheppard subway extension in the foreseeable future.

Pledging a Sheppard extension may have helped the PCS win Scarboroughagincourt, which was a Liberal stronghold before Doug Ford in 2018 promised to connect Don Mills to the end of the Scarborough subway at Mccowan Road.

Tunnelling for the three-stop Bloor-danforth line addition is just underway and could take 10 years, but Ford's pledge to extend Sheppard afterwards — reaffirmed in the 2022 Ontario budget with funds to plan it — is being repeated now.

The riding's incumbent, Aris Babikian, who in 2018 called the Sheppard extension "my first priority," said only the PCS and Ford can get it done.

But the Liberals, who with the City of Toronto once supported the approved-but-now-shelved Sheppard East LRT, are now also promising a Sheppard extension.

Soo Wong, the former Scarborough-agincourt Liberal MPP running to unseat Babikian, said in a May 11 email the city is studying some technical matters related to a Sheppard extension. "That's why we have a commitment to support this project," she added.

The city through its transit expansion office said it is working with the province's Metrolinx agency to plan "seamless integration" between a possible Sheppard extension and the Scarborough subway.

Despite the city's requests, the PCS have not agreed to fund construction of Eglinton East, a surface line from Kennedy station to University of Toronto Scarborough which Toronto council extended into Malvern. The line will run through several East Scarborough neighbourhoods lacking rapid transit, and the city has pledged $1.2 billion to it.

The Liberals and NDP are promising funds, though. At a May 7 rally with transit advocates Ttcriders, a pledge to build Eglinton East was signed by five local Liberal candidates and four New Democrats, including Felicia Samuel, the party's Scarborough—rouge Park candidate.

The ballooning expense of the Scarborough subway kept Eglinton East from being built. In the northern part of Scarborough—

Rouge Park, which includes part of Malvern, "people are frustrated and fed up" with the lack of rapid-transit, Samuel said in an interview.

She added the NDP will restore 50 per cent provincial funding for the TTC, missing since removed by the PC Mike Harris government in the 1990s, and is committed to unspecified "rapid transit" on Sheppard East.

Ontario's Green Party would also bring back the

50 per cent fare box subsidy, while Liberals are pledging $375 million a year on top of emergency pandemic support to expand bus service. That works out to less than the NDP and Green 50 per cent promise, Shelagh Pizey-allen of Ttcriders said by email.

The candidates signing the group's pledge also supported introduction of a flat fare allowing transfers between TTC and GO Transit — Scarborough has eight GO train stations — also part of the Liberal and NDP platforms.

"It's not too late for all Scarborough candidates to make commitments to fund more bus service, build the Eglinton East LRT to Malvern, and create a flat fare in Toronto so riders can transfer between TTC and GO for free," Pizey-allen added.

The Liberals also say they will reduce all transit fares to $1 until 2024. The party's Scarborough Centre candidate, Mazhar Shafiq, has been seen during the campaign hoisting a four-foot sign which says, "Ask me how to ride the TTC for $1."

RIDING PROFILES

For profiles for all ridings in Scarborough - and Ontario - link to our story at: thestar-qr.com/22022provincialridings (or just scan the QR code).

Once there, scroll down and under the heading 'Electoral district profiles', you can choose from any of Ontario's 124 ridings - including all of Scarborough's. You'll find specific riding information such as who's running in the race, the previous election result and demographics.