Metrolinx has issued an ultimatum threatening to stop work on the $1.8 billion replacement of the creaking Scarborough RT if Toronto doesn’t re-affirm its commitment to the project.

A letter to city manager Joe Pennachetti from Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig gives Toronto until Aug. 2 to confirm that it’s still on board with a master agreement the city and TTC signed last year to replace the SRT with an LRT for $1.8 billion in provincial funding.

Despite that agreement, there are signs the city has changed its mind, McCuaig told the Toronto Star on Friday.

“Council passed some resolutions in May that are different than the project that is contained in our signed contract with the city. We need clarity,” he said.

“We would prefer not to spend money on projects the city doesn’t support,” said McCuaig.

He said he’s not suggesting that the SRT funding would be reallocated to another project or municipality.

In a discussion in which it rejected most of the proposed new provincial transit taxes and approved none, council voted in May to ask the province to extend the Bloor-Danforth subway instead of building light rail on the SRT route. It also agreed to ask Queen’s Park to extend the Sheppard subway west to close the loop between the Spadina and Yonge subways.

McCuaig’s letter disputes an earlier TTC estimate that suggests a subway would cost just $500 million more than an LRT. Metrolinx says the subway option would cost at least an additional $925 million, including $84 million in sunk costs for the design, engineering and management of the project and the light rail vehicles.

Other expenses include the cost of renegotiating the LRV order with Bombardier, $60 million to keep the SRT running for an additional five years, and $320 million that would migrate to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT project for renovations to Kennedy Station.

The lack of certainty is also hindering Metrolinx’s ability to proceed with procuring a new LRV maintenance facility on Conlins Rd. and with the contract for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which is tied into the SRT construction.

Converting the SRT route to a subway suggests the project would migrate from Metrolinx to the TTC, presenting an accounting challenge to the province, said McCuaig.

There is no money in the Metrolinx budget to cover any cost beyond the $1.8 billion originally allocated from an $8.4 billion funding package that will also pay for LRTs on Finch West, Sheppard East and Eglinton, as well as converting the SRT, said McCuaig.

“One of the things the city should be considering is the potential costs associated with a change at this time,” he said.

“We believe that the conversion and extension of the SRT to an LRT is a good project. It’s on a fully separated right of way, it’s on a speed akin to a subway … the technology will meet the needs of the community into the future,” McCuaig told the Star.

Metrolinx is not threatening at this point to allocate the $1.8 billion in SRT funding to another project, said McCuaig.

Although McCuaig said he’s spoken to city and TTC staff, Councillor Karen Stintz, who chairs the TTC, was caught off-guard by the letter Friday.

She said she would speak to Pennachetti about whether it’s even possible to get the matter on the July 16 city council agenda. It’s not clear, said Stintz, if it would take the usual two-thirds majority of council to put the matter on the floor.

“Time is of the essence because we only have one more council meeting before the deadline,” she said.

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But Stintz supports extending the Danforth subway because it would eliminate the need to transfer to LRT at Kennedy Station and would also connect with the Sheppard LRT.

“I think this is the right subway for Scarborough, so I’m glad we have the opportunity to resolve this,” she said.

Scarborough councillors will need to meet with Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray to make sure they are clear on what kind of wording the province requires and to clarify the cost estimates outlined in the Metrolinx letter.

Stintz said there was no hint of an ultimatum when she met with Murray last week and broached the subject of the SRT.

Since then, however, the resignation of Scarborough-Guildwood MPP Margarett Best means that the provincial Liberal government will be going to a by-election in the east end of Toronto, where Mayor Rob Ford’s subway platform resonates with voters.

The Metrolinx letter is good news for Scarborough residents because it suggests the province is considering a Scarborough subway, said Scarborough Centre Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker.

“I’m happy to work with the premier and the minister to clarify the council motion. The council motion was very simple: We want a subway in Scarborough. For the first time ever we had a majority of councillors saying, ‘We support an upgrade of the LRT line to a subway,’” he said.

“This is the right subway line that will have the greatest benefit for the people in Scarborough,” said De Baeremaeker. “The Danforth line should be extended from Kennedy up to the Scarborough Town Centre and north to Sheppard and McCowan.”

The Metrolinx threat is exactly what he feared when council voted in May to re-open the SRT issue, said councillor Josh Matlow.

"Council willfully ignored Metrolinx's warning and we need to right that wrong," he said.

"If council is going to ignore a reality it's going to squander an opportunity to provide rapid transit to Scarborough," said Matlow.

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