Mississauga wants PCs to cover $65 million in annual LRT operating costs; Province ‘considering’ request

Without significant financial support from Queen’s Park, Mayor Carolyn Parrish warns the Hurontario LRT could be another costly anchor around the necks of Mississauga taxpayers once the line is operationalized. 

In a letter dated November 13 addressed to Premier Doug Ford, Parrish requested the PCs subsidize the operating costs, estimated at approximately $65 million annually, for the City’s responsibility to keep the Hurontario LRT running “for at least the first three years of its operation, and perhaps longer”, similar to what the provincial government has done for transit projects in Toronto and Ottawa.

Despite the Province signing a $4.6 billion contract in 2019 with transit consortium Mobilinx for the construction and total capital cost of the line, along with most of the operating/maintenance costs, Mississauga has been told it will be responsible for covering an additional billion dollars over the next 30 years once the LRT is up and running.

“Earlier this year, your government struck new funding deals with Toronto and Ottawa, providing each city with funding for transit projects,” Parrish wrote. “In both cases, your government recognized the significant operating pressures faced by these cities and determined that provincial support was needed. I am asking you to do the same for Mississauga.”

The request has been featured on previous pre-budget submissions to the Province, including the latest submission ahead of the 2025 Ontario budget, which appeared in a staff report on the December 4 general committee agenda. The document refers to new deals for operating and capital funding for transit projects that have been committed to the City of Toronto and City of Ottawa in the last year for financial support that has allowed the municipalities to shift tens of millions in revenues to other needs. 

“The $65 million represents an estimate of the City’s portion of the future operations and maintenance costs once the LRT has opened and is operational. That may include funding day-to-day oversight, fare enforcement, passenger safety and security, customer service and marketing, as previously reported to Council,” a spokesperson for the City told The Pointer. “The City is currently not paying any of those costs. The municipalities are currently negotiating agreements with Metrolinx on these matters, as well as a cost-sharing agreement with the City of Brampton.” Staff will report to council once the agreements are finalized.

Ford has committed to taking on the costs of running both the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Finch West LRT once operational with $1.2 billion over three years, the staff report details, though neither project has been given updated completion dates after experiencing a slew of delays. In Ottawa, the PCs have committed over $197 million for operating costs, including $48 million for increased safety on public transit.

“In both cases, the Province recognized the significant operating pressures faced by these cities and determined that provincial support was needed,” the report highlights. Reiterating the request in Parrish’s letter, staff suggest the Province develop and sign a new deal with the City of Mississauga to provide funding to operate the Hurontario LRT for at least the first three years (the Hurontario LRT was supposed to launch this year but has been delayed with no firm opening date).

“We are considering the Mayor’s request,” a spokesperson from the Ministry of Transportation confirmed in an email to The Pointer on December 10. 

Mississauga’s Mayor warns residents could see a 3.6 percent tax hike to help offset operating costs of the Hurontario LRT if the Province does not step in.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer files) 

Parrish warned the estimated $65 million annually to run the LRT “will be a substantial increase” to Mississauga’s budget, which will already need the largest increase in decades for 2025 with an 8.8 percent spike to cover the City’s costs for the year ahead. When the estimated operating costs for the Hurontario LRT are added, it could be approximately 3.6 percent more on the property tax bill for Mississauga residents, who are already facing several other financial pressures due to the ongoing cost of living challenge. 

“While we are thankful that the Province has invested in this critical piece of regional transit infrastructure that will serve Mississauga, Brampton, and beyond, we struggle with the significant impact to property taxpayers for its operations,” Parrish wrote. Her letter highlighted other financial pressures currently looming over the City including a $450 million request from Trillium Health Partners to help cover the local share contribution needed for the redevelopment of the Mississauga Hospital—which the City has declined. As councillors have repeatedly stressed and the Mayor’s letter reiterated, “Mississauga does not have the financial capacity to pay this share for provincial infrastructure, as well as continue to bear the financial burden of building, maintaining and operating new infrastructure.”

Under the Region of Peel, Mississauga is currently being underfunded by the provincial government, Parrish repeated. A report presented to regional council earlier this year by Peel’s Metamorphosis Network — an organization made up of over 100 non-profits — revealed Peel is being shortchanged $868 million annually in social service funding from Queen’s Park compared to other comparably sized municipalities. This means each of the region’s 1.5 million residents is being shortchanged $578 annually for critical services. A Mississauga motion in June requested a fair funding model and underlined that of the $868 million, the city’s shortfall is almost half a billion dollars.

On top of funding shortfalls from Queen’s Park and Ottawa (for transit, healthcare and other infrastructure needs) Mississauga is facing many other financial pressures as it continues to rapidly urbanize. Council members recently refused a $450 million request from Trillium Health Partners to help cover a $1.5 billion local-share funding requirement by the PCs to build the new Mississauga hospital. Parrish has said this could be reconsidered if City Hall gets help on some of the other major projects it has to fund.

The future LRT, also known as the Hazel McCallion Line, is critical to support the projected population growth and ensure connectivity to other transit networks in the municipality, according to a 2016 Benefits Case Analysis. It will travel through two urban growth centres and connect to major transit systems including GO (Milton and Lakeshore West lines), the Mississauga Transitway, Brampton Transit, ZUM and MiWay. Once fully constructed, the LRT will start at Mississauga’s southern edge, run through the city’s core and into the southern edge of Brampton where trains will turn around.

Despite the significance of the project to Mississauga's future city-building and how residents will move around, the project has been left without an official completion date. It was initially slated to be completed two years ago — a timeline that was previously revised after it was clear the project was not going to meet its original completion date in 2022 — then the launch date was moved to this year, but the project is now “incurring concurrent delays on multiple other fronts,” according to a credit rating report released in October.

The route featuring the downtown loop, which the PCs restored after it was cut from the design in 2019.

(Metrolinx) 

The credit downgrade report by S&P (Standard and Poor’s) Global, which provides independent credit ratings for a wide range of markets, found the “project has discovered issues with track tolerances for already installed sections that are out of compliance with specifications.” It also suggested construction consortium Mobilinx, which was awarded the $4.6 billion project in 2019, is now facing financial challenges, alongside the design problems. 

The launch date is now up in the air and the Province and Metrolinx continue to remain silent on the reasons for the failure to meet the already revised fall 2024 completion window. Questions also remain around when the downtown loop, which Mississauga officials say is critical to the city’s connectivity, will be constructed. 

Although a meeting between Parrish and Ford in the summer suggested the downtown loop was a done deal (after the PCs cut it out of the project during their first term in power), few details have been provided on when the loop will be constructed and what the costs will be.

With the reintroduction of the three-stop downtown feature, it will add even more money to the City Hall bill to provide services needed to operate the LRT; a bill Mississauga cannot afford to pay without stretching taxpayers who are already at their limit.

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock

At a time when vital public information is needed by everyone, The Pointer has taken down our paywall on all stories to ensure every resident of Brampton, Mississauga and Niagara has access to the facts. For those who are able, we encourage you to consider a subscription. This will help us report on important public interest issues the community needs to know about now more than ever. You can register for a 30-day free trial HERE. Thereafter, The Pointer will charge $10 a month and you can cancel any time right on the website. Thank you