[Hopkins123]

There is a signed contract. The line runs through Ford’s own riding. Do they want a gas plant cancellation cost expense scandal from the first week? I doubt it.

We’ve all seen statements from Mamolitti.

I'm curious though, just how much would cancelling the Finch West LRT contract would cost? Weighed against the $1.5 billion pricetag of building it, it may still be a win to cancel the project.

 

[Wrench]

I'm curious though, just how much would cancelling the Finch West LRT contract would cost? Weighed against the $1.5 billion pricetag of building it, it may still be a win to cancel the project.

DoFo said he would be checking the books on the Finch Lrt’s progress.
Metrolinx has all ready spent $238 million dollars to date. Moving infrastructure out of the way.
So cancel Fee say up to 62 million & we have a grand total of $ 300 million.
And then we start over like Ground Hog Day & build a subway instead of the planned Lrt which should take about 3-4 years of replaning & nothing gets built.
And the cycle begins again with a New party
Can’t wait

 

[Amare]

Can’t we walk and chew gum at the same time? What if all were proceeding at the same time?

Apparently we're incapable of having more than one rapid transit project going concurrently due to political interference. It's been this way for decades unfortunately.

 

[Voltz]

DoFo said he would be checking the books on the Finch Lrt’s progress.
Metrolinx has all ready spent $238 million dollars to date. Moving infrastructure out of the way.
So cancel Fee say up to 62 million & we have a grand total of $ 300 million.
And then we start over like Ground Hog Day & build a subway instead of the planned Lrt which should take about 3-4 years of replaning & nothing gets built.
And the cycle begins again with a New party
Can’t wait

As well as the cost of reducing the size of the Alstom LRT order, which will already have to be reduced because of the loss of the Sheppard LRT

 

[TransitBart]

Apparently we're incapable of having more than one rapid transit project going concurrently due to political interference. It's been this way for decades unfortunately.

What if this were the government to change this paradigm?

 

[Hopkins123]

DoFo said he would be checking the books on the Finch Lrt’s progress.
Metrolinx has all ready spent $238 million dollars to date. Moving infrastructure out of the way.
So cancel Fee say up to 62 million & we have a grand total of $ 300 million.
And then we start over like Ground Hog Day & build a subway instead of the planned Lrt which should take about 3-4 years of replaning & nothing gets built.
And the cycle begins again with a New party
Can’t wait

$300 million doesn't sound to me like it's on the same scale as the Liberal's Gas Plant or Orgne Ambulance Scandals. The sunk cost for the utilities relocation could be salvageable per a Bus Rapid Transit right-of-way be installed in the LRT's place, which would cost more in the $200 million range versus $1.5 billion.

Then that remaining $1 billion is freed up to be spent on more pressing transit expansion elsewhere.

 

[BurlOak]

There is a signed contract. The line runs through Ford’s own riding. Do they want a gas plant cancellation cost expense scandal from the first week? I doubt it.

We’ve all seen statements from Mamolitti.

Whoever compares it to the gas plant scandal doesn't know what the gas plant scandal is.

1. Cancelled by the same party that started it.
2. Make announcement withing months of election to buy votes, with no House sitting to question decisions.
3. Announce dollar figure that is low by a factor of 25.
4. Destroy documents related to the decision.

Cancelling FWLRT would be none of these, unless Ford announces that he expects the cancellation costs to be about $12M.

$300 million doesn't sound to me like it's on the same scale as the Liberal's Gas Plant or Orgne Ambulance Scandals. The sunk cost for the utilities relocation could be salvageable per a Bus Rapid Transit right-of-way be installed in the LRT's place, which would cost more in the $200 million range versus $1.5 billion.

Then that remaining $1 billion is freed up to be spent on more pressing transit expansion elsewhere.

Even an elevated FWLRT could benefit from the relocations.

 

[TransitBart]

Wouldn’t you be appalled to waste any money in a cancellation of something a decade in the making? I would be if I had campaigned on a 'find the waste' and 'cut the crap platform'.

 

[nfitz]

I'm curious though, just how much would cancelling the Finch West LRT contract would cost?

Depends how much of a poison pill, the Liberals wrote into the PPP contract. They've already paid big penalties to Bombardier to replace the LRT vehicles with Alstom vehicles, and then would also have to pay penalties to Alstom if they were to cancel those again.

What if this were the government to change this paradigm?

Given the gross systemic incompetence we've seen out of the PC party on simple internal matters recently, and the incompetent financial mismanagement by Doug Ford in his personal business - does this seem likely that this is the government to make effective change? Though I suppose all they have to is nothing - which is perhaps all they are good for!

Whoever compares it to the gas plant scandal doesn't know what the gas plant scandal is.

1. Cancelled by the same party that started it.

It does seem somewhat disingenuous to go down that path, given that the PCs promised to cancel the gas plant BEFORE the Liberals cancelled the gas plant. I'm not sure why you are even raising this, let alone trying to twist history. Had they waited another two months for the PCs to cancel the plant, the costs would be even higher. All parties were in agreement that the plant should be cancelled.

 

[Rainforest]

Canceling Finch LRT would be as stupid as canceling Scarborough subway.

LRT is right-sized for the corridor, and a lot of preparatory work has been done, let alone the sunk costs.

BRT could work in short term but is not really future-proof given the demand already seen in this corridor, while a subway would be a massive overkill.

 

[nfitz]

Canceling Finch LRT would be as stupid as canceling Scarborough subway.

How could it be? The Finch LRT construction ontracts have all been awarded, the vehicles are ordered, and huge penalties would be in play.

There's no construction contracts yet for Scarborough, and the investigative work/design would still be useful in the future.

Obviously no one is cancelling Scarborough at this stage, but cancelling Finch is far more stupid.

If only our incoming Premier didn't excel in stupid!

 

[Rainforest]

If only our incoming Premier didn't excel in stupid!

Well I'm pretty sure he isn't particularly competent. But what you are suspecting is the next level; actively pursuing something stupid when it is both easy and sensible to let the events unfold on their own.

 

[nfitz]

Well I'm pretty sure he isn't particularly competent. But what you are suspecting is the next level; actively pursuing something stupid when it is both easy and sensible to let the events unfold on their own.

I'd be surprised if he doesn't quickly try to cancel Finch West. The only thing that may stop him is if the poison pill payment to the consortium in the contract is big enough. And I don't think any of us know that amount.

 

[OneCity]

I'd be surprised if he doesn't quickly try to cancel Finch West. The only thing that may stop him is if the poison pill payment to the consortium in the contract is big enough. And I don't think any of us know that amount.

I agree with you here. This is not a line Ford would be overly excited to deliver under his name as it doesnt fit the main criteria of his admins transit priorites.

A deal with the City and the subways could resolve this so he doesn't have to claim responsibility for surface transit. I'm sure the optics to his base are very important to him and since he did say this line would be built it would be a good tradeoff solution oppprtunity

 

[Tuck]

I'd like to think Ford would just leave it alone; he gains nothing from cancelling it. Its not like he can cancel it and put a subway in its place because he has like 5 other subway projects to pay for now.

That said, either he or Rob did propose a subway on Finch once, so its not outside the realm of possibility. But I think its too far along to cancel.

On the other hand, the public seems to care very much about gas plant scandals and absolutely nothing about transit scandals so.....