TORONTO

Despite a scathing Ontario auditor general report, the TTC is still on board with Presto.

Jim McCarter revealed Wednesday Presto will be one of the most expensive transit fare card systems in the world at a cost to taxpayers of $700 million.

Last month, Metrolinx confirmed the Presto system will be in Toronto’s subways by the end of 2013 and in streetcars and buses by 2016.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said the AG’s report has no impact on the TTC.

“We have agreements in place with Presto,” Ross said Thursday.

TTC chairman Karen Stintz said she has no regrets about having the city’s transit system embrace Presto.

“I think we need to bring smart card capability to our system,” Stintz said.

“In terms of the city’s position, we’re protected financially. I understand there is only one taxpayer and no one wants to see this cost escalate beyond what is reasonable, but from the city’s perspective and the TTC’s perspective, we’re saved … from any of those cost overruns.”

But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a former TTC commissioner, said he wasn’t surprised by the report.

“I suspected it was a boondoggle,” he said, adding Presto was an “older technology.”

Minnan-Wong said a company with open payment technology offered to provide it for free to the city. “It is regrettable that they are having to pay an additional $450 million for something that would have been provided by a competitor for free,” he said.

Stintz disagreed.

“Open payment would have cost the same and the downside is we wouldn’t have been integrated with the region,” she said. “And we wouldn’t have had all the abilities the smart card offers us in terms of understanding our customer base and communicating with our customer.”