As a debate at city hall raged in the summer of 2013 about whether to build a subway or a light-rail line in Scarborough, in front of TV cameras Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government appeared to stay the course.

“We’re on track to do LRT,” then-transportation minister Glen Murray told reporters ahead of a crucial council decision that July. Less than a year earlier, the province had signed an agreement with the city to build and fund an LRT.

“If you’re asking am I ready to drop everything and say, ‘OK, yeah, we’re just going to do a subway?’” Murray continued.

“No.”

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But behind-the-scenes, Murray was already backing a subway and the Liberals were influencing a council process that would undo the LRT they had agreed to build, according to internal emails newly-obtained through a freedom of information request. In doing so, the province ignored expert advice that a subway was not justified and pressured what is meant to be the arms-length transit agency to endorse a subway in spite of the agency’s backing of an LRT.

The emails from the premier’s office, taken together with emails earlier obtained by the Star from the provincial transit agency Metrolinx, as well as records released to and detailed by journalist John Lorinc in a five-part Spacing investigation and recent interviews, offer a clear picture of how a more than billion-dollar transit project nearing construction was cancelled.

At last estimate, a subway — now planned to extend one stop from Kennedy Station on the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre, replacing the aging Scarborough RT — won’t be built until at least 2026. And the cost, now $3.35 billion, is expected to increase.

“There was a period in the middle of Rob Ford’s term as mayor when there was so much chaos that people saw their opportunity to advance their own interests instead of serving the public good,” said Councillor Gord Perks, who supports the LRT plan. “We’re all paying for it now.”

This is how it happened.

One of the city’s most controversial transit debates played out in three acts, spanning three key council votes over five months in 2013. It began at a time when most city officials were still largely preoccupied with a debate over building a casino downtown, and it heated up as the world was about to find out there was a video of the mayor of Toronto smoking crack cocaine.

Before May 2013, then-TTC chair and city councillor Karen Stintz got a call from Greg Sorbara, a longtime Liberal MPP and former finance minister who had recently stepped down. He served as chair of the Ontario Liberal Party’s campaign team until mid-March 2013. He encouraged Stintz to run for the mayor’s seat.

Jean-Pierre (JP) Boutros, former adviser to the TTC chair told the Star that Stintz detailed that call to him afterward in their city hall office. Sorbara, Boutros remembers Stintz told him, told Stintz the Scarborough subway needed a champion. Stintz — who had for months advocated for LRTs — should be that champion, Sorbara said, according to Boutros. Both Stintz and Sorbara, when reached by the Star, denied the conversation about the subway occurred. Sorbara said he encouraged Stintz’s future campaign, but did not support a Scarborough subway. (Boutros and Stintz had a falling out shortly after the events that followed this call. Boutros later ran for Stintz’s council seat and she endorsed another candidate).

“I have been publicly in opposition to the construction of the Scarborough subway for quite some time and have been actively encouraging (Councillor) Josh Matlow to keep up the fight within city council,” Sorbara told the Star. “The Scarborough subway is an outrageously expensive non-solution to the transportation issues that confront the people of Scarborough.”

Around the same time, Stintz met with the deputy minister of transportation to push for the subway, the Globe & Mail reported. After the meeting, Stintz ally Scarborough Centre Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker reportedly said he was “immensely confident” the province would support a subway.

Stintz then planned a way to reopen the debate, with help from De Baeremaeker, who had earlier teamed up with Stintz to push for a subway, according to an email from then Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig summarizing a conversation with Stintz. Emails show Stintz revived an agenda item on transit funding as a way to allow De Baeremaeker to introduce a motion on a subway at an upcoming council meeting.

At this point, the city and the province had already signed a master agreement to build an LRT in Scarborough, with the province committing in the November 2012 document to paying all construction-related costs.

On May 8, during the transit funding debate at council, De Baeremaeker stood in the chamber to move that council simply “support” a subway extension of the Bloor-Danforth line.

As the debate was underway, staff in Wynne’s office debated the government’s messaging after Murray had been quoted that day in the Star unequivocally saying the province wouldn’t consider deviating from the LRT plan.

“I don’t think this is the positioning the P wanted on this issue,” Wynne spokesperson Kelly Baker wrote to her colleagues, apparently referring to Wynne. Another email shows staffers used “P” for “Premier” to refer to Wynne. A spokesperson for Wynne did not respond to a specific question about the meaning when contacted by the Star. Baker, now a consultant, could not be reached for comment.

At the council meeting, Speaker Frances Nunziata ignored the city clerk’s advice that De Baeremaeker’s motion required a vote to reopen an earlier decision. Against council rules, the motion went ahead. It passed 35 to 9.

After the May vote, senior Metrolinx staff discussed sticking with the message that they were moving forward with an LRT.

“We have a plan and an agreement with the city,” wrote McCuaig.

Meanwhile, in minister Murray’s office, one of his staff was asking Ministry of Transportation officials to provide estimates of what it would cost to build a line in Scarborough underground, emails obtained by Spacing show.

In June, city manager Joe Pennachetti, the city’s top bureaucrat, wrote to McCuaig with a request, saying it was “critical” the Metrolinx CEO send a letter “to outline the requirement of council approval related to any possible amendments to the master agreement and the Scarborough SRT being replaced by subway.” Essentially, Pennachetti was asking Metrolinx to tell council they needed to specifically vote to change the master agreement and build a subway.

The premier’s director of communications Lise Jolicoeur emailed her colleagues to say Metrolinx was “seeking input and feedback” on a letter seeking clarity on council’s position.

Since it’s creation in 2006, Metrolinx has been governed by provincial legislation that says agency officials “shall be guided in all its decisions and actions by the transportation plan” set out by the province — setting it up to be, in theory, an arms-length “independent” body, as described on the Ministry of Transportation’s website. In 2013, the province’s transportation plan included an LRT for Scarborough.

Drew Davidson, then a special assistant in the premier’s office, wrote to her colleagues on June 26 questioning why a letter from McCuaig was needed at all.

“Why are we ‘asking for clarity?’” she wrote. “Are we asking for clarity (because) we are open to working with them on changing this project? Or, are we looking to drive a hard line by reminding them of the master agreement?”

The email continued: “If it’s the latter, I think from a (communications) perspective, the letter doesn’t work. It’s dragging on a story by asking for a response when we should just be saying we’re not changing the plan.”

David Black, then Murray’s chief of staff, wrote on June 27 that the Metrolinx board was “open to amendments” to the letter, “however they are concerned that the issue is political and that the letter may best come from an elected official.” The specific concerns from the board were not spelled out in emails released to the Star.

Despite all that, Wynne’s chief of staff and principal secretary Andrew Bevan and Murray’s office, the emails show, helped edit and signed off on the letter that was ultimately sent by McCuaig on June 28, specifically asking for council to confirm it’s position before August.

The letter put the issue on the agenda of the next council meeting for a vote. Did council want a subway or an LRT?

The same day, June 28, Black and other officials were sent a business case analysis from senior Metrolinx staff comparing the LRT to a subway, according to the Spacing investigation. Dated May 2013, that “preliminary analysis,” obtained by the Star, “indicated that the subway scheme will not present a good use of public investment dollars, and we therefore recommend proceeding with the LRT as designed in the master agreement with the city of Toronto.”

A later version of that report also concluded the subway was “not a worthwhile use of money” compared to the LRT. It’s not clear what Black did with the analysis. None of the versions were made public until they were released to journalists through freedom of information requests.

A key moment came at the beginning of July, when Wynne called byelections in several ridings, including Scarborough-Guildwood. In a tight race, the Liberals put up Mitzie Hunter as their candidate, the CEO of CivicAction, which had long backed the plan for a network of LRTs. She was branded a “subway champion,” reflecting the Liberals’ new position on the issue.

By July 9, Murray’s staff had crafted a “communications approach” in a document titled “Scarborough subway strategy,” which Bevan in the premier’s office signed off on over email.

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“Goal: Take control of the message and ensure Ontario government is recognized as the leader and funder of a subway system in Scarborough,” it read.

Murray’s proposed schedule included a media event for the day after the July council vote “to announce the government’s plans to help Scarborough residents get a subway” — a plan that assumed council would favour a subway, a week before the vote. The plan was circulated before Murray told reporters the government wouldn’t flip to supporting a subway with a signed master agreement on the table.

Five days before the July vote, the city’s chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, who supported the LRT as the best plan for Scarborough, spoke to a member of the premier’s staff, Brian Teefy, about the LRT.

In an email to Liberal staffers, Teefy relayed what Keesmaat had said: that the subway would reduce the number of stops, serve fewer priority neighbourhoods and wouldn’t reach capacity for decades. Bevan responded, pointing out the drop to three stations from seven was a “real negative.” “And the route is worse than for LRT.”

Two days before the council vote, Murray met with Ford. According to a summary of the meeting sent by Black to his colleagues, Murray told the mayor the province would support a subway, committing $1.4 billion.

At the July council meeting, at Ford’s urging, council voted 28 to 16 in favour of a subway.

But the July vote did not seal the deal on a subway. It was not yet clear how to pay for the additional $2 billion needed for the estimated $3.56-billion, three-stop extension and opposition remained on council to undoing the master agreement.

By September, Murray announced the Liberal’s own plan for building a subway above ground along the existing route of the Scarborough RT, with two new stops. The plan, Murray said, would cost just $1.4 billion — the amount available from the Liberals without other funding commitments.

Some on the Metrolinx board questioned the province’s push for a subway.

“All of this political machinating seems to easily undermine a lot of very good work,” wrote Metrolinx board member Marianne McKenna to McCuaig and fellow board members on Sept. 6., noting the benefits on the LRT.

Then-board member Frances Lankin agreed: “I get the politics of all this (as distasteful as it is) but it is now not clear what the board’s role is on this issue at this time.”

Lankin, now a senator and no longer affiliated with Metrolinx, told the Star she was shocked by the flip-flop. “This to me is just such a study in populist political positioning overriding evidence-based policymaking,” she said.

But Murray’s office continued to push back with Metrolinx and the board.

Metrolinx was crafting a new letter to the city about the Murray version of the subway, saying Metrolinx supported the “consideration” of that option. Murray’s chief of staff, Black, told the board they had to comply with the minister’s wishes.

“We cannot have any daylight between the (Metrolinx) board and the minister,” Black wrote to board chair Rob Prichard and McCuaig. “In the absence of any confirmed technical issues then (Metrolinx) should support the government’s decision to have the Scarborough subway in the SRT alignment.”

“Metrolinx is an implementation agency,” Black wrote to Bevan in the premier’s office. “The minister made a decision and it is up to (Metrolinx) to implement that decision not reevaluate it.”

As demanded, Metrolinx changed the letter to say they had “consistently supported using the SRT corridor.”

Near the end of September, the federal government pledged $660 million for a subway. But that left a $910-million gap. Without enough funding to proceed, the issue was returned to the council agenda for an October meeting.

At that meeting, the subway option was confirmed in a close 24 to 20 vote. Council decided to deal with the funding gap by taxing every Toronto homeowner for at least 30 years.

Stintz, who had denied having mayoral ambitions, would run in the 2014 election. Sorbara donated $1,500 to her campaign, which was aided by top Liberal strategists Dave Gene and Don Guy. She wouldn’t finish the race, exiting at less than 5 per cent in the polls two months before the vote. She declined to comment on additional questions for this story.

Many others have since left the political landscape, including Murray, who told the Star on Monday that the decisions made were the government’s, not that of a single minister. “This was implementation of a government decision not debating the merits of the case for and against different transit options,” he said, adding they “prudently decided to seek clarity” from council and supported the mayor’s priority projects.

McCuaig declined to comment. Prichard, who is still the board chair, said in an email that “it would be inappropriate for Metrolinx to comment on governmental decisions” during an election period.

Davidson, now Ontario Liberal Party spokesperson, said they “respect the decision made by council” on the subway and will “continue to work with the city of Toronto to deliver this project.”

Thirty-six hours after council confirmed their support of a subway at the October meeting, Metrolinx board members got an update from McCuaig about the agency’s new “messages” on Scarborough transit. They included that “Metrolinx is prepared to work with the city and the TTC now that Toronto city council has confirmed its commitment to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway.”

Prichard responded directly, emphasizing that the city, not the province, would have to pay for the tens of millions in costs wasted on planning the LRT because of the switch to a subway plan. He referenced another cancelled deal that had been plaguing the Liberal government.

He wrote: “No gas plants for us, thanks.”

Clarification- June 6, 2018:

This article was updated from a previous version to include a comment from Greg Sorbara making clear his opposition to the construction of the Scarborough subway.

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