The Ford government is thinking about Toronto’s transit needs again. Cue the chaos.

TTC riders still don’t know what new transit lines they’ll get or when they’ll be built. And now they don’t even know who will wind up owning the city’s subway system.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford seems to have taken to backtracking on his own government’s plans with the same vigour he previously applied to blowing up other governments’ plans. The result is the same — chaos and confusion.

First, Ford blew up the city’s longstanding plan to build a downtown relief line, with shovels to have gone in the ground next year. He promised to upload the city’s subway system and replaced the relief line with his “faster, better, cheaper” Ontario line. When he unveiled this in the spring he really seemed to expect a standing ovation as he portrayed himself as a white knight bringing transit to those in need.

Now, he’s offering to let the city keep its subway system so long as council endorses his Ontario line, which will release billions in federal funds to help pay for the $11-billion (or so) project, according to reporting by the Star’s Ben Spurr.

This is a form of blackmail, pure and simple.

As much as Toronto council, which opposes the subway upload, may want to keep the Toronto Transit Commission whole, it should be wary of giving in to provincial demands.

Ford wasn’t a white knight when he vowed to take ownership of the subway system, which basically amounts to theft given how much residents and riders have put into it over the years, and he’s certainly not one now.

But Ford has surely realized by now what experts have said all along: that he can’t deliver what he’s promised. He simply can’t snap his fingers and build the Ontario line, which is twice as long as the council-approved relief line, two years faster and at a far lower cost per kilometre.

If that line, reaching north to the Ontario Science Centre and west to Exhibition Place, is ever built it will certainly cost more and take longer than Ford has predicted. And we’re not talking small change here; subway overages typically run to the billions.

Who will be on the hook for finding that extra money? And who will be blamed?

That’s what Ford is so keen to dump on the city.

It’s a terrible spot to be put in. But the city needs to find a way through this mess and come up with a deal that results in the best transit as soon as possible and that the city’s riders and taxpayers can afford.

That will be no easy feat, especially with Ford at Queen’s Park.

Provincial and municipal officials are reportedly trying to work out a deal that would see the city maintain subway ownership and move ahead with the Ontario line. And a city report on that line is expected to be debated at Toronto Mayor John Tory’s executive committee on Oct. 23.

Ford’s plan to separate Toronto’s subways from the rest of its transit system never made any sense. So there’s bound to be substantial appeal among councillors to cutting a deal that keeps the TTC together. But there are more questions than answers about the Ontario line, not to mention the three-stop Scarborough subway, a sped-up subway extension to Richmond Hill and an expanded Eglinton West LRT, which are also part of Ford’s transit plans for Toronto.

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All the questions around timing, routes and, above all, realistic budget projections and who is paying for what must be publicly answered before any deal is signed.

Toronto can’t afford to be stuck with the bill for what still looks like Doug Ford’s unrealistic transit dreams.

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