TORONTO

I wish I could say that the fresh revelations about the crumbling state of the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway are a direct result of the former regime’s war on the car.

But there’s far more at play.

They have as much, if not more, to do with the Waterfront wet dreams of ex-mayor David Miller and his band of Millerites.

To the ordinary person, it might seem rather shocking that the Miller gang would, for all intents and purposes, abandon such vital infrastructure to prop up their green agenda.

But sadly it is true — and one could see it coming six years ago.

Miller didn’t want it to be an election issue in 2006 — and for the most part managed to suppress it with the help of compliant bureaucrats at City Hall.

Nevertheless, details of a $1-million report from Waterfront Toronto (then the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp.) surfaced in September 2006 that pointed to a preference to dismantle the Gardiner from Spadina Ave. east to the DVP and create a “Great Street.”

All was quiet until 2008 when the idea resurfaced — this time from the newly renamed Waterfront Toronto — but just for the 2.9-km stretch of the Gardiner between Jarvis St. and the DVP.

No doubt Waterfront Toronto and Miller figured the nearly $800-million price tag for the entire stretch was too rich.

Within no time, a $7.8-million environmental assessment was rubber-stamped at Waterfront Toronto and pushed through at the July 2008 council meeting.

Waterfront Toronto estimated the cost of the work at the time to be $300 million. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong thought it could easily hit $500 million.

In some ways it was fortunate that Waterfront Toronto took so long — a year — to get the framework of the EA up and running because by the time election year rolled around and the study was shelved, they’d only spent $3 million.

Meanwhile, when chunks of concrete started tumbling from the Gardiner in May 2007, then transportation services director Gary Welsh mumbled that $90 million was projected to be spent on repairs to the expressway over the succeeding seven or eight years.

Not that year, mind you or in any of the years Miller remained in office.

I don’t know where Welsh got the $90 million but we all know now that a shockingly low $1.3-million was spent during the same year those chunks fell — and another $15 million in total until Miller left office.

It was no coincidence, in my view, that the flow of money to repair the Gardiner was cut to trickle once the Millerites had it in their minds to dismantle the eastern section.

In fact, all road and bridge repairs were given far less attention than they deserved.

Even after Miller’s highly-hyped personal vehicle tax came into being in 2007 — allegedly for “city building” — only $21 million of the $55 million collected in 2008 actually went to road repairs throughout the entire city.

It is worth noting here that the same year $7.9 million was set aside to fund more bike lanes compared to just $9.5 million to repair the Gardiner.

So if precious capital dollars didn’t go to the Gardiner and the city still has a $337-million backlog in road repairs, where DID the money flow?

It sickens me to say that $130 million of one-time funds was dumped down the drain on Miller’s Climate Change Agenda — towards various energy retrofit and solar and wind loans and grants; to green and eco-roof installations; towards a home energy assistance program and environmental research.

So the blame for the mismanagement of infrastructure repairs — the Gardiner and other roads in the city — should be placed squarely on the Millerites, most specifically Councillors Gord Perks and Glenn De Baeremaeker, who as vice-chairman and chairman of the public works committee were responsible for staying on top of what was being done.

Whether the EA was done, or not, is a red herring and Perks is shameless to even try to divert attention from their mismanagement by using that as an excuse.

It was their job to ensure our roads and expressways were in driving condition.

The idea that they may have sacrificed the safety of Torontonians to fulfil their green agenda and their wet dreams should make all of us see red.