Asian Tribune Your Multilingual Newspaper covering World and local news News
Residents were hopeful when they saw Metrolinx begin to test trains that the years of traffic headaches were near their end, but nearly two years later, it’s anyone’s guess when the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will be completed and that’s raising the ire of mayoral candidates.
On Thursday, Ontario Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney and Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster were unable to provide a date for the long overdue transit project. Both Mulroney and Verster laid the blame for their inability to provide a timeline at the feet of contractor Crosslinx Transit Solutions.
Verster said hundreds of quality control issues had been identified and until they were corrected at the contractor’s expense, it would be unsafe to put the LRT in operation.
But candidates Brad Bradford and Anthony Furey aren’t accepting the head of the transit agency’s explanation and want Mulroney to do something about it.
“They gotta get their act together and Minister Mulroney has to stop passing the buck,” said Furey.
A former columnist for the Toronto Sun, Furey called the ongoing failure of the provincial transit agency to complete the project a “fiasco.”
Now Furey is pledging to sue Metrolinx if he becomes mayor and pass the money onto those affected most by the long drawn-out construction.
“We’re going to go after them for $1 billion in damages and redistribute it in part to the businesses along Eglinton and the BIAs,” Furey said.
Meanwhile, Bradford is calling on the Ford government to “reel in” Metrolinx, calling it a “rogue agency.” The sitting Toronto councillor said it isn’t enough for Metrolinx to make excuses when its task is to deliver.
“It’s a complicated project; transit infrastructure always is,” Bradford said, “but you are a top-paid bureaucrat earning nearly a million dollars each year and we need someone who is actually accountable.”
Bradford thinks the man at the top overseeing the Crosstown LRT is part of the problem and needs to go.
“Phil Verster should be fired,” said Bradford. “I think anyone who is responsible for a project with the kind of cost overruns that we have seen, and hasn’t taken any accountability and hasn’t outlined any steps for how he’s going to fix those problems, should be fired.”
Crosslinx Transit Solutions hasn’t responded to multiple requests from Global News requesting comment.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.