Developer Oxford Properties has distanced itself from pro-subway advocacy group ConnectScarborough, defunding it ahead of a contentious debate over the future of transit in Scarborough, the Star has learned.

“We continue to be very supportive of improved public transit in Scarborough,” Claire McIntyre, vice-president of marketing and communications for Oxford, said in an email. “Our internal team will be our voice in the community and in council as the debate on better transit in Scarborough continues.”

Oxford, which owns and operates the Scarborough Town Centre, has publicly backed a one-stop subway extension planned to end in a new station next to the mall.

ConnectScarborough, run by Liberal lobbyist Ryan Singh, emerged in recent months with backing from Oxford management, Singh previously told the Star. As of Saturday, Oxford is no longer listed as a partner on the group’s website.

Debate on the subway resumes Tuesday, with city staff recommending council approve a McCowan Ave. alignment for the subway extension. Those on council opposed to that plan say a light-rail network would better serve Scarborough residents.

In an email, Singh, who is the president of the Scarborough-Rouge River Provincial Liberal Association and whose firm Temple Scott Associates represents Oxford in its lobbying efforts, told the Star ConnectScarborough “will continue to provide a voice to those who support the Scarborough subway extension and other transit projects in Scarborough,” noting other local partners.

That list of partners still includes Centennial College, whose Progress Ave. campus would have been connected to a now-cancelled seven-stop LRT with a station at the school, and the University of Toronto Scarborough, which is planned to get its own stop on a second 17-stop LRT proposed along Eglinton Ave. E.

But because of ballooning costs of the extension, now estimated at $3.35 billion, the Eglinton East LRT to the U of T’s Military Trail campus has been left unfunded.

Singh said he hoped it would be noted that “several thousand of riders” could benefit from the subway.

At a March 7 meeting of Mayor John Tory’s executive committee, Town Centre director and general manager Robert Horst spoke of how improved transit could turn the area into a “mixed-use urban destination.” Horst said the Town Centre was supportive of the current plan, including the one-stop subway extension.

ConnectScarborough was behind a subsequent town hall where Tory was the guest of honour. Tory used the packed recreation centre as an arena for his rallying cry for the subway, which he promised to build while facing former mayor Rob Ford and later Ford’s brother, Doug, in the 2014 election.

At that town hall, Tory alluded to criticism of the Oxford-backed group, saying businesses that have invested “in many cases millions and millions of dollars” in Scarborough deserve to be heard.

“I want to hear what those people have to say. What they have to say is important to me,” Tory said, adding jobs and investment will be the “lifeblood” of a future Scarborough.

Joy Robertson, who heads the neighbourhood association Scarborough Residents Unite, said she can understand why those running the Scarborough Town Centre would be pushing for a subway.

“What I do not understand, however, is the politicians who swore to uphold public interest but are willing to sacrifice the rest of our Scarborough residents’ transit funds and needs for accessible transit,” she wrote to the Star.

A seven-stop LRT – fully funded by the province – to replace the existing Scarborough RT would also have connected the mall and Scarborough Centre. It was a proposal the city’s chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, said in 2013 created better growth potential for future development and better drove value onto commercial property than the original three-stop subway plan.

Councillors concerned with the subway plan have accused ConnectScarborough of fronting as a grassroots group representing residents’ interests.

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Councillor Shelley Carroll noted an unresolved complaint filed with the lobbyist registrar about whether the group’s communications with councillors followed city rules.

“It wasn’t that citizens went to Oxford and said, ‘We'd like to start a group, can you donate?’ ” Carroll said. “I find it curious that the ‘yes’ side, in partnership with Oxford, has felt such a need to try to maintain in the community a pro opinion. They've had to work very hard to keep it there. I find that very telling.”