R I C H M O N D H I L L’ S C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 8 7 8
The LIBERAL
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Thursday, June 9, 2016
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yorkregion.com
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Celebrating $55M Yonge North Subway Extension funding at the Richmond Hill Centre Terminal last week are Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, from left, Richmond Hill MPP Reza Moridi, Willowdale MPP David Zimmer, Vaughan MPP Steven Del Duca, Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, York Region CEO Wayne Emmerson and Mayor Dave Barrow of Richmond Hill.
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Two subway lines on track to York Region BY LISA QUEEN
lqueen@yrmg.com
With last weekend book-ended by two major subway events headlined by heavyweights from Queen’s Park, public transit in York Region has taken a major step forward in the last week, the president of the region’s transit corporation says. “We are now finally seeing the long-term strategy and dream fall into place. It is the underpinning of our growth strategy,” Mary Frances Turner said after Premier Kathleen Wynne’s visit to Vaughan Monday morning. Her visit came just three days after Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca was in Richmond Hill to announce funding for engineering and design work for the future extension of the Yonge subway line from Finch to Richmond Hill. Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, chairperson of the transit corporation’s board, called the two transit events in the region within days of each
other a significant acknowledgment of York’s transit needs and growth projections, especially after years of different governments at Queen’s Park failing to acknowledge those requirements. Wynne was at the future Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station at Hwy. 7 to mark the completion of track work on the extension of the Toronto-York Spadina subway. The six-station extension is scheduled to open in December next year. “With this investment, we will provide subway service that moves beyond regional boundaries for the first time,” Wynne said. “We are confident Ontario’s record investments in infrastructure will pay off for people in their everyday lives and will also help our economy grow and create jobs.” While the track completion is a significant step, the extension has faced challenges. For example, York officials found out in Janu-
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ary the region would be on the hook for another $160 million as the project was yet again over budget, this time to the tune of $400 million. Toronto’s share was $240 million. A year earlier, York had to pitch in $92 million in additional funding. The cost of the subway extension is now expected to be $3.2 billion, up from the original forecast of $2.6 billion. Cost overruns have been blamed on a variety of reasons, such as start-up delays, poor performance by some contractors and scope and design changes not originally budgeted for. Despite the challenges, Del Duca, MPP for Vaughan, called the completion of the track work a major step forward for the subway extension. “We know how important public transit is to managing congestion, curbing emissions and See ‘SMALL STEP’, page 8.