Karen Stintz jeered at transit meeting with Scarborough residents
Natalie Alcoba Mar 9, 2012 – 12:30 AM ET
Karen Stintz took her pro light-rail message to the people of Scarborough Thursday night and felt the wrath of residents who refuse to accept anything less than a subway.
A couple hundred people packed into the council chambers at the Scarborough Civic Centre for a meeting and debate organized by the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition. Ms. Stintz had started her evening promoting LRTs at another, much smaller, transit meeting in Malvern organized by Councillor Raymond Cho.
The civic centre crowd was dramatically more hostile to her pitch, booing and heckling the freshly reaffirmed chair of the Toronto Transit Commission and calling on her to resign.
“You’re stealing money from the residents of Scarborough, you’re stealing from me,†hollered Tom Varesh, 38, who has spent most of his life in Scarborough. He calculated that since Scarborough represents one-quarter of Toronto’s population, it should get $2.1-billion of the $8.4-billion the province has earmarked for the city’s public transit network.
“You have underground trains in the rest of Toronto and you have the audacity to say we can’t build you a subway.â€
Ms. Stintz said that Scarborough is getting more than $3-billion in new and improved transit, in the form of an Eglinton LRT, the Scarborough RT and, if approved, the Sheppard LRT for which she is advocating.
“We don’t have a funding plan for a Sheppard subway. There is no plan, and it’s not about the private sector,†Ms. Stintz told the crowd.
“The private sector only does things when they get paid, and we need a way to pay them, and we don’t have a way to pay them right now.â€
The meetings come as the transit debate in Toronto moves into its next phase: what to do on Sheppard Avenue. City council last month struck a panel of experts to investigate if extending the subway, or continuing the line with surface light rail, will best meet the needs of residents.
The panel is expected to report back by March 21, when city council will vote on the issue. Mayor Rob Ford is pushing for a subway, but questions remain about how the city would pay for it.
City council has already endorsed a plan to use provincial money to build a predominantly tunnelled line under Eglinton Avenue, with a portion in the eastern end rising to the surface, in addition to a light rail line on Finch Avenue.
The meeting included Dr. Gordon Chong, who is Mayor Rob Ford’s point person on subways, Sue-Ann Levy, a columnist for the Toronto Sun and John Morand, former city manager at the city of Toronto, who spoke in favour of subways.
Mr. Chong implored Councillor Stintz to give the private sector six to 12 months before making a decision. Mr. Chong, a former vice-chairman of the TTC, is pushing for a public-private partnership; a report he wrote that was released last month concluded that financing for the Sheppard subway extension is feasible, and that various revenue sources such as taxes, tolls and parking levies, should be considered.
“A public-private partnership doesn’t give you money, all subways and all transit is built with tax dollars,†said Ms. Stintz.
Ms. Stintz challenged Mr. Chong to spell out the funding plan for the Sheppard subway.
“Are you thick or what?†said Mr. Chong. “If this Mayor and council would open their minds to all the potential funding tools that are available, we could fund not only this line but a whole network.â€
Long-time Scarborough resident Gordon Spittal, 68, told Ms. Stintz that he would rather the city spend the $1-billion of provincial and federal money earmarked for Sheppard on extending the subway to Victoria Park Avenue. “And leave Sheppard alone for 10 years until we get the money†to go further, he said. Other residents raised concerns about the impact a surface LRT would have on businesses along Sheppard.
“Karen it seems like you’re joking around, you don’t know what we’re going through. Why don’t we get out of the political side, and be more human to each other, build a subway for the people out there,†said Allison Scott, a long time resident, in her 50s.
Over at Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic School, in Malvern, local residents seemed more receptive to Ms. Stintz’s proposals.
One woman, who declined to give her name, pointed out that a Sheppard LRT would reach her neighbourhood, while Mr. Ford’s subway plan stops at the Scarborough Town Centre.
“What about us, we’re just left hanging in the air,†she said. “Something is better than nothing.â€