January 27, 2025
Hon. Doug Ford, Premier
Government of Ontario
Legislative Building Room 281
Queen’s Park, Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Dear Premier
Re: Expediting the Sheppard Subway Extension
We are writing to you on behalf of five Residents’ Associations representing communities in north Scarborough and northeastern North York to request your direct and active intervention in expediting the construction of the Sheppard Subway Extension. As long-time advocates of this much-needed project, we urge you to be our champion, expedite the planning and design process and commit to further funding of this project.
The continuing failure to build adequate transit by your predecessors is glaringly evident and your dedication to reverse that trend and build critical transportation infrastructure since taking office is commendable. Our communities appreciate your long-standing support for Sheppard and were thrilled by your campaign commitments in 2018 and 2022, however there has been little demonstrable progress made to advance this project over the years except for an early stage, and now overdue Initial Business Case (“IBC”) that you tasked to Metrolinx in May 2023.
Simply put, that IBC will undoubtedly confirm what we have all known for years – if not decades, that this extension makes absolute sense from whatever lens one wants to apply to it – economic, social, environmental etc. We are sure that you agree that six-plus years of governing to generate a still incomplete Initial Business Case is not ideal when it has been identified as a government priority during two majority mandates. At present, there is currently no timeline or funding committed by your government to this project beyond this early IBC phase. This does not demonstrate a meaningful commitment. This project needs leadership, ongoing funding and aggressive timelines.
During the past few decades, residents in northeast Toronto who live in the vast area east of Don Mills north of the heavily congested 401 have watched numerous other transportation projects leapfrog the completion of the Sheppard Subway. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of transit-dependent residents in this geographically large and growing contingent of communities are forced to endure long rides in packed buses on congested roads just to get to a far-off subway station at the end of an existing line.
As residents and employers in this large swath of the city remain underserved, promises and campaign commitments have come to mean very little over the decades – we implore you to focus your attention on this project with the same zeal we have watched you commit to other transportation projects – even ones in areas where few people currently live and where it will be decades before they come close to reaching the needs or population density of our area.
As your government promotes and facilitates the development of Transit Oriented Communities along transit lines, perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is naturally occurring along Sheppard – without City or Infrastructure Ontario Staff and their consultants acting as early planners and proponents in a years-long procurement and planning process.
Along Sheppard, privately driven high density communities have popped up at Yonge, Bayview, Bessarion, Leslie and Don Mills. Numerous other towers have emerged east of the existing subway terminus while thousands of new residential units have been approved or are in the pipeline at Don Mills, Consumers Road, Victoria Park, Warden, Kennedy, Midland, Brimley among several other locations. These are massive TOD communities in the making that dwarf most of the ones initiated by Infrastructure Ontario and contain thousands of new residential units. Unfortunately, many of those new residential and mixed-use communities are currently stalled due to uncertain economic conditions.
A clear commitment to the extension of Sheppard Subway in the Provincial Budget with substantial funding commitments is the catalyst needed to unlock these projects - thereby making a significant contribution towards the achievement of Provincial housing targets.
The completion of the IBC, the upcoming Provincial Budget and a pending Federal Election present the ideal confluence of events for you to jump start this project, address the housing crisis in a meaningful way and finally deliver this long overdue transit project. We urge you most respectfully to highlight this project with significant funding in the upcoming Budget (and/or election campaign) and use that commitment to leverage the attention of developers and Federal parties to get both housing and transit built. Such acts will enable you to demonstrate that once again, you are ‘Getting It Done’.
We look forward to your renewed support and meaningful actions that include a funding commitment and timeline for this important and much-needed project.
Sincerely,
Rhoda Potter - President Agincourt Village Community Association
Paula Smith-Nadin – President CD Farquharson Community Association
Denis Lanoue – President Heathwood Ratepayers Association
Susan Wakutz – President Pleasant View Association
Alura Moores – President Scarbrough Rosewood Community Association
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