Ontario’s auditor general (AG) is characterizing the Doug Ford government’s move to cancel Hamilton’s light rail transit (LRT) in 2019 due to cost overruns as “reasonable.”
In her annual report released on Monday, Bonnie Lysyk said her office did a cost analysis of the project after NDP leader Andrea Horwath requested the AG look at the province’s rapid transit cost estimates presented to the public under both the Wynne Liberals and current Ford government.
Lysyk said the office looked through numbers between 2016 and 2018 that were not made public and found estimates “did not represent” the full cost of the LRT and suggested the numbers were “significantly understated.”
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“Based on a detailed review, we found that the $5.5-billion cost estimate reported by the minister of transportation in December 2019, when the project was cancelled, was reasonable,” Lysyk said in her report.
In her report, Lysyk said the ministry of transportation was aware in 2016 that costs were going to exceed the $1 billion and that money would only cover the estimated cost of construction.
The study found the treasury board revised and approved a new budget of $2.98 billion in Dec 2016, then in March 2018, the board made another cost revision of an estimated $3.659 billion, including $1 billion in construction costs.
Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation cancelled Hamilton’s 17-stop LRT in Dec. 2019 claiming that the former Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne was not upfront about the true cost of the LRT.
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“It is frustrating news, but the stark fiscal reality is that the project will actually cost five times more than the previous government led us all to believe,” then-transport minister Caroline Mulroney said in the statement.
In his daily COVID-19 presser, Premier Doug Ford called the AG’s 45-page report “great” and singled out Hamilton’s LRT as an example of one sector of the government that former transport minister Steven Del Duca was not transparent about.
“The only difference between us and the Liberals is as soon as we found out we were transparent compared to Steven Del Duca who wanted to hide it and mislead the people of Hamilton,” Ford said.
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In a statement to Global News, Del Duca’s office defended the estimate saying it is normal to announce large transit projects using only construction costs to protect competitive bidding.
He went on to argue that the process was used for similar rapid transit projects like the GO Regional Express Rail, the Hurontario LRT and Finch LRT.
“Despite this fact, Doug Ford chose to proceed with those other projects, and chose to only single out the city of Hamilton and deliver a reckless and devastating cut to their transit needs,” Del Duca said.
Work on the line was expected to start in 2021. A provincial government report in 2019 showed that Metrolinx spent about $162 million on the project. Much of that related to the purchase of properties that the agency is still holding on to as of Dec 2020.
In a statement, Mayor Fred Eisenberger said he “welcomed” the AG’s determination that the $5.5-billion cost estimate was reasonable. However, he said the ministry’s decision to cancel the project was not.
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“What is not reasonable is the Minister of Transportation cancelling a project’s procurement process prior to its completion and prior to speaking with private sector and third-party partners who indicated their interest in assisting the funding of both capital and operational costs of the LRT,” Eisenberger said in a release on Monday.
During his update on Monday, Ford affirmed his willingness to bring an LRT to Hamilton saying “one way or another we’re going to get the LRT built.”