Councillor Josh Colle (open Josh Colle's policard), has joined the ranks of Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard)’s Gardiner hybrid plan supporters. But the TTC chair wants the road sold or leased by the city to raise money for public transit.

It's a scheme that would inevitably mean tolls to road users and Colle said he's already aware of pension funds that would be interested in owning or leasing the Gardiner.

Whether council decides to tear down the expressway east of Jarvis or build the hybrid plan that maintains ramps to the Don Valley Parkway, 90 per cent of the road will remain standing, he said.

Citing the “city’s need for real transit dollars, and the lack of transit infrastructure to support the thousands of condo units approved near our waterfront,... I believe that it is time for us to sell or lease the Gardiner in its entirety,” said Colle.

Going into today’s crucial meeting, councillors appear tightly split on whether to tear down the eastern stretch of the Gardiner and replace it with an at-grade boulevard or build new ramps to connect it with the DVP.

Until now, Colle was among a small group of councillors still weighing their position.

The money from the sale or lease of the road, he said, could be used to pay for the TTC’s backlog of repairs and renovations needed just to keep the system running; Tory’s SmartTrack commuter trains on the GO lines and the East Bayfront LRT that council has declared among its top transit priorities.

Whatever it decides this week, council should approve that LRT as part of its Gardiner decision, said Colle in a statement released to the Toronto Star.

While the councillor for Eglinton-Lawrence said he appreciates the passion on both sides of the Gardiner debate, he is “increasingly uncomfortable with the advice coming from current and former policy/decision makers.

Those experts made the decisions that have left the city with a wall of condos blocking the waterfront, too little transit and a Gardiner that will mostly remain intact for generations, he said.

“While some have suggested that removing the 1.7-km portion of the eastern Gardiner would yield $500 million to direct to other city priorities, this is not the case. There would be some savings over the lifespan of the asset (projected to be $5 million/year over 100 years) but substantial dollars would in fact not be available to immediately inject into transit or other infrastructure projects,” said Colle’s statement.

“We must avoid past mistakes and make the necessary transit investments before this part of the city explodes with new developments, traffic, and people,” he said.

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