In an extraordinary dismissal of city council’s will, Mayor Rob Ford has called his resounding defeat on Wednesday over Toronto’s transit plan irrelevant.

He is urging the province to build subways even though council voted 25-18 in favour of an above-ground LRT plan and Queen’s Park indicated it will listen.

“Technically speaking, that whole meeting was irrelevant,” said the mayor, after councillors voted to go with a competing transit plan championed by his former ally, TTC chair Councillor Karen Stintz.

“The premier, I’m very confident, is going to continue building subways,” Ford told reporters following the full-day special council session to declare Toronto’s preference for spending $8.4 billion in provincial transit funding.

But Stintz said she had no doubt that the province will consider council “supreme.”

“They asked council to make a decision, and I think the decision tonight was decisive,” she said.

The approved plan calls for returning to the light-rail scenario approved by the city, the TTC and the province in 2009, under former mayor David Miller. It includes street-level light rail on Finch Ave. W., and on Eglinton east of Laird Dr. Eglinton would still run underground from about Black Creek Dr. to Laird.

But, in an olive branch to Ford, a decision on whether it will be subway or LRT on Sheppard East was referred to an expert panel to report back by March 31. Ford came to office on the promise of building all new transit underground.

“We do think, as a council, it was important that we support the mayor in that commitment and we allow further time and further options to find funding for Sheppard,” Stintz said.

A statement by Ontario Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Bob Chiarelli confirmed that Metrolinx will consider the decision’s impacts on current transit planning and report back as quickly as possible.

“I have always respected the will of council, as a whole, to come to a position regarding public transit priorities,” he said.

There would be some money to work with, Stintz said, because the revived light-rail plan means the east end of Eglinton would be built above-ground between Laird Dr. and Kennedy station, potentially freeing up $1.9 billion. Some of that would go to build an LRT on Finch Ave. W., and up to $650 million would be available for Sheppard from the province, if Eglinton meets its budgets and deadlines. That in turn frees up $330 million in federal funds, bringing the total available for Sheppard to about $1 billion.

Councillor Doug Ford, who represents the northwest ward of Etobicoke North, was adamant that the Metrolinx light-rail transit plan — signed by the city, the TTC and Metrolinx in 2009 — shortchanges Scarborough.

“This fight is not over,” he told council. “We will stand up for the people in the suburbs that deserve better than trolleys running down the middle of their road.”

Council rejected a motion by the mayor to delay a decision on the competing transit plans by a month.

Although getting an LRT will be an improvement over the bus, residents on east Eglinton will be disappointed the line won’t be underground, said Scarborough Southwest Councillor Gary Crawford, a Ford loyalist. “They really felt it needs to be underground,” he said.

But another Scarborough councillor disagreed.

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“There’s 130,000 people who live north of the 401 who are going to get transit today. They didn’t have it last week,” said Glenn De Baeremaeker (Scarborough Centre).

Similarly, Maria Augimeri (York Centre) said the decision to restore transit to Finch means “the good people of Downsview will have rapid transit. The students will have transit to Humber College.”

“I have no doubts that what spoke there was council in its fullness,” said St. Paul’s Councillor Joe Mihevc, who supports light rail. Without the mayor’s pressure tactics on councillors, he said, the margin of victory for the surface plan would have been greater.

With files by Rob Benzie and Paul Moloney

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Sheppard Ave. E. transit panelists

Council has deferred a decision on the kind of transit it wants on Sheppard Ave. East pending a recommendation from an outside panel of experts. Among those named as potential panelists at Wednesday’s special council meeting are:

Gordon Chong: The mayor’s point person on Sheppard subway financing has his report before the city’s Executive Committee next week. But the leaked document shows that even with maximum private sector investment, there’s about a $1 billion funding shortfall to build the subway.

Eric Miller: Director of the Cities Centre at U of T has been vocal in the fight to adopt the surface light rail. He was also an opponent of Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford’s proposal to re-write plans for the east lakefront to include a Ferris wheel and shopping mall.

Former mayor David Crombie: Elected mayor in 1972, he has a reputation for championing socially responsible development. reputation as a social policy champion. He also signed the open letter Sunday from civic leaders and academics urging councillors to adopt the surface light rail plan.

The panel would also likely include representatives of the TTC, Metrolinx, Toronto CivicAlliance and the Toronto Board of Trade.

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