Ford dangles $2.8B tunneled Brampton LRT but no money amid criticism of snap February election

Premier Doug Ford dodged a question Friday when asked if his latest pre-election promise to Brampton residents—to build an underground LRT that could cost more than $3 billion—will come with actual funding included in the 2025 Ontario budget.

"We don't have an exact figure, but we will be getting that exact figure," Ford replied. "But we know one figure if we don't build it, and that's the figure that's unacceptable. We need to build proper transit for the people of Brampton, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

When asked if he will include the money for the ambitious project in the 2025 budget if re-elected, he sidestepped again: "Yes, once we get the exact numbers, we'll make them public."

While inside Brampton City Hall for the Friday morning announcement, which was clearly staged as a campaign-style event in the vote-rich city, Ford confirmed an early election will happen on February 27. 

It’s not the first time Ford has arrived in Brampton shortly before an election to make a splashy promise to the city’s voters. In 2022 he vowed, if re-elected a first time, Peel Memorial’s long-awaited expansion into a full-service hospital would finally happen. Like his lack of a funding commitment for Friday’s big promise, Ford would not guarantee money for the hospital in 2022, despite giving Brampton residents hope prior to the election that the city would finally get its desperately needed second hospital. 

A rendering of what was supposed to be Peel Memorial’s expansion into a second hospital in Brampton. It has not happened despite promises for almost a decade.

(City of Brampton)

The PCs have not yet budgeted money for Peel Memorial’s expansion which was initially going to cost around $300 million but could now come with a bill of about $2 billion, after being delayed for almost a decade. 

After Ford made the promise, Brampton taxpayers began paying a special tax for the promised second hospital last term of council, but the project has been plagued by delays and a lack of a funding commitment from the provincial government. When plans were finally made public for the project after the PCs secured a second government with a powerful majority that included a sweep of the city’s five provincial seats, many residents were outraged to learn Peel Memorial would not be expanded into a full-service hospital, with none of the acute-care beds or other healthcare services required for a hospital designation.

Now, voters in the city have been told to once again put their faith in the PCs, who are promising a multi-billion dollar underground light rail system into the downtown core as part of the Hurontario-Main project being built from Mississauga’s lakeshore all the way up to Steeles Avenue in Brampton. Ford now says it will be extended into the heart of the city. 

That plan has generated controversy since 2015, when Brampton’s council of the day rejected provincial money committed under the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government.

Opponents of the Main Street alignment said it would not deliver nearly enough high-order transit ridership to justify the cost of an LRT, while concerns about the Etobicoke Creek and heritage preservation along the surface corridor contributed to the disagreement. Councillors decided to explore a “Made in Brampton” LRT route, but that was pulled off the table after Patrick Brown was elected mayor in 2018. 

After the city’s council rejected the Hurontario-Main LRT route chosen by provincial transit agency Metrolinx in 2015, Brown demanded the portion of LRT to run into Brampton’s city centre go underground. His mentor, late Ontario premier Bill Davis, whose family house is still on Main Street, did not want to see a train directly in front of the home. Since receiving support from Davis to get elected mayor, Brown has been determined to avoid a surface LRT option that would run along Main Street, where he also lives.

He promised a tunneled alignment under Main Street would avoid disruption to the heritage character, while appeasing those who have long pushed for a Main Street LRT.

Two years ago, Brown’s tunnel solution was estimated to cost $2.8 billion for a less than 4-kilometre line into downtown.

Last year the City of Brampton outlined plans for the tunnel in a submission to the provincial government. 

The underground option supported by Brown and the current council would cost at least $2.8 billion according to a 2023 estimate by the City, compared to a $933 million surface alignment for a light rail segment that is only about four kilometres in length. Metrolinx has made it clear in the past that taxpayers should not be expected to pay exorbitant amounts for high order transit projects unless there is a practical justification for excessive per-kilometre costs that are out of line with other projects. 

In response to questions from The Pointer in February last year about a funding timeline and whether the PC government would commit to cover the $2.8 billion tunnel alignment (it could cost much more than that by the time construction begins, especially if common delays in subsurface LRT work arise) a Ministry of Transportation spokesperson said officials at MTO had “received the Business Case from Metrolinx, which includes all options, and will be reviewing them in the coming weeks.”

A staff report to Brampton council last year recommending the tunnel alignment advance through a provincial Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) stated that in discussions with the transit agency, Metrolinx grouped the LRT extension in its “high” prioritization category but stated “Metrolinx did note that the prioritization was based on a surface alignment and that the increased cost for the tunnel alignment may negatively impact the preliminary benefit cost ratio.” 

Complicating the matter is Brown’s failure to get required work done to determine the feasibility of the Main Street route or a tunnel alignment. He has refused to plan for needed flood mitigation work on the Etobicoke Creek corridor, as his repeated budget cuts have crippled infrastructure investments across the city. No environmental assessment for his tunnel option has been done (the province did not do one either).

He has also failed to budget any money that would be needed for local costs to support the LRT such as surface upgrades, traffic-related work and other enhancements to support higher order transit that are not covered by the provincial government. These could cost tens of millions of dollars. Mississauga councillors were recently told the municipality’s ongoing maintenance costs for the LRT could be $65 million annually and officials there are now scrambling to come up with the money (the project was supposed to be finished in 2022, then it was delayed to 2024 and now there is no completion date for the LRT to Steeles Avenue).

The issue of running an LRT alongside Etobicoke Creek has never been properly addressed, with no environmental assessment and concerns by experts who have questioned if a tunnel could even be built under the waterway. Severe flood risks along the entire Main Street corridor remain unaddressed, with the total cost estimated at $600 million about seven years ago.

In 2018, a Master Service Agreement between the Toronto Region Conservation Authority and the City approved a budget of $3 million to find a solution that would have involved a complete reimaging of the city centre, a dynamic new river-walk, new bridges and much more. The TRCA made the application (in concert with the city and Peel region) and received $1.5 million in federal funding from the Ministry of Public Safety through its National Disaster Mitigation program. The money was specifically earmarked for an environmental assessment of Brampton’s Special Policy Area (SPA), a horseshoe-shaped piece of land in the downtown core that is highly prone to flooding along Etobicoke Creek where the LRT would run.

A Toronto Region Conservation Authority flood map of Brampton shows the Main Street LRT route would be right in the middle of a horseshoe-shaped area (in red) prone to major flooding along Etobicoke Creek.

(TRCA)

In 2020 an environmental assessment by TRCA and the City was published; but it was not done specifically for the LRT. It laid out the challenges of building in Brampton’s downtown and the required flood mitigation infrastructure.

Jeff Bowman, a former councillor whose wards included impacted areas, estimated after speaking with municipal staff at the time that the cost of the entire project, including the new Riverwalk design, could be over $600 million.

Top: the larger downtown flood mitigation area; bottom, a rendering of the Riverwalk. Flood mitigation will be required before an LRT can be built into the downtown area.

(City of Brampton)

Ford’s promise Friday to build the tunneled LRT will need to be accompanied by numerous studies around the required flood mitigation, engineering work to explore construction under and along Etobicoke Creek and financial approvals at the provincial level to spend billions of dollars on a short line that amounts to a per-kilometre cost far beyond what Metrolinx has recommended in the past.   

Meanwhile, Brampton officials including Brown will have to start planning for the hundreds of millions of dollars local taxpayers will have to cover to operate and maintain the light rail system.

There was no discussion this week of the LRT during recent City budget meetings ahead of the rushed approval of Brown’s financial plan for 2025. 

Premier Doug Ford meets residents at Brampton City Hall Friday.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

Brampton’s advocacy efforts around the LRT last year included requests for $1.4 billion each from the federal and provincial governments to fund the tunnel option. No commitments have been made.

Significant delays and other challenges have impacted the Mississauga portion of the Hurontario LRT project. 

In October, a report from S&P Global (previously Standard and Poor’s) downgraded the credit rating of Mobilinx, the consortium responsible for building and operating the $4.6 billion project, citing financial challenges and unresolved design problems. Improperly installed track sections, which required a redesign and re-procurement of special tracks, were highlighted. S&P placed Mobilinx on a negative credit watch, signalling the risk of further downgrades if additional delays arise. The report also revealed the project was experiencing concurrent delays on multiple fronts, complicating efforts to resolve construction and financial disputes.

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency overseeing the project, acknowledged the challenges but has not provided a revised completion date. While Metrolinx claimed significant progress, such as completing track work at 30 of 55 intersections and constructing six of the 18 planned stops, the removal of the timeline has drawn criticism from local officials and transit advocates.

The setbacks did not stop Ford on Friday.

"Last year, we announced the government's plan to extend the Hazel McCallion line into downtown Brampton," he said inside City Hall. "And today, I'm pleased to announce that the Hazel McCallion line will include an underground tunnel from the Brampton gateway terminal all the way to downtown.

"I'm so pumped up right now.”

Email: [email protected]

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