February 5, 2015
The Globe and Mail
Oliver Moore

Only a bit late for Groundhog Day, the biggest transit battles of Toronto’s last council term are about to pop up again.

A light rail project in the city’s northwest and subways for Scarborough will both be on the table at next week’s council meeting, according to the agenda published Thursday.

Councillor Josh Matlow put forward a series of “administrative inquiries” that demand answers from the city manager about the viability and logic of an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line farther into Scarborough. Among them, he wants to know how much the city has budgeted for the sunk cost in return for assuming the project, a secret figure that insiders peg at close to $85-million.

The city assumed responsibility for these costs when it voted to turn the provincially funded LRT into a subway. The city has balked at the bill presented by the regional transit agency Metrolinx, insisting it should be smaller.

January 23, 2015

Toronto Star

Jennifer Pagliaro

Councillors say they have been kept in the dark for more than a year about the costs of cancelling the Scarborough LRT, after the city has already budgeted for what could be $75 million owed to the province.

Councillor Josh Matlow, a vocal opponent of the Scarborough subway, said council was never briefed on the real cost of doing an about-face on light rail.

“I’ve been asking for a lot of information for a long time that was never forthcoming,” he said Friday. “I think the public should be very concerned about the dearth of accountability and transparency.”