Advocates vow to make Gardiner Expressway East rebuild a key issue in mayoral campaign

Advocates pressing to change course on the Gardiner Expressway East rebuild say they will try to make the project an issue in the mayoral campaign after a key city committee sidelined their call for a deeper dive into its costs. 

Albert Koehl, a spokesperson for Gardiner East Transparency, a coalition of some 40 community groups, said they still hope to push candidates to demand answers from the city on the controversial billion-dollar project. 

The coalition had released a letter ahead of last week's Executive Committee debate calling on councillors to authorize a report that investigated costs of the project and forgone revenues by continuing the rebuild.

But the committee voted to receive, and effectively shelve, the report after hearing from dozens of deputants, most of whom called for them to change direction on the project.

"It's not the end of the story, but it is a lost opportunity," Koehl said.

In 2016, councillors decided to spend just over a billion dollars to retain the eastern portion of the expressway, moving it farther north while tearing down a ramp over Logan Avenue.

The so-called "hybrid option" was chosen instead of a proposal to tear down a 1.7-kilometre section of the Gardiner east of Jarvis Street and replace it with a surface-level boulevard for less than half the cost. 

But the project was, and remains, controversial. It represents approximately 14 per cent of the city's overall 10-year capital plan, according to staff.

Koehl said the coalition will press mayoral candidates who register to run in the June 26 election for their position on the expressway.

"The election is an obvious next step," he said. "We're certainly looking for candidates to say, we're going to give the residents of Toronto a full report on what this decision means in terms of the budget, our climate policies, and in terms of how we move forward in the city." 

Lyn Adamson of ClimateFast, which is part of the coalition, said it's not too late for councillors and mayoral candidates to dig deeper into the project costs. There are alternatives that could help the city meet its climate change targets, she said.

"It's just the wrong direction," she said of the rebuild. "We're working to move to net zero by 2040. And that requires that we shift people out of cars and on to transit." 

Adamson is hopeful that the city's mayoral debates will help the groups spotlight the need for change on the Gardiner East project.

"People have a chance to look at the vision of the future of the city because that's what you do when you're electing a mayor," she said. "You say, what kind of city do we want this to be?"