Mayor John Tory is recommending that the city co-operate with the provincial government in an information-sharing agreement that would further Premier Doug Ford’s controversial plan to upload the TTC subway system to Queen’s Park.

According to correspondence obtained by the Star, Ontario Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek requested in a Nov. 29 letter to Tory that the city share information about the TTC with the province.

The minister’s letter stated that the goal of the “confidential discovery process” would be to gain a “joint understanding” of three issues: the “fair valuation” of the subway system assets; the current backlog of subway maintenance, and “the costs to operate the subways, disaggregated from the bus/streetcar network.”

The minister said the province would pay for any costs the city incurred to collect and analyze the necessary information.

The Conservative government has repeatedly said they only intend to take ownership of the subway system, and would leave its operation to the city and TTC. A spokesperson for Yurek said Friday that remains the government’s intention, but it is seeking to ascertain the subway operating costs because “the more information everyone has, the better.”

In his letter, Yurek asked Tory for the city’s written consent to proceed with the joint the discovery process by Dec. 13. The government plans to introduce legislation to enable the upload early next year.

The mayor forwarded the minister’s letter to city manager Chris Murray on Friday, along with a letter of his own in which he recommended the city take part in the agreement.

“We know that the subway upload was a campaign promise of the Progressive Conservatives in the last election and that the government has now indicated its determination to proceed,” Tory wrote.

“I believe subject to clear conditions, that the city’s participation in this (information-sharing) exercise is the best way to protect our TTC system.”

The mayor said that co-operating in the effort would give the city “a more detailed understanding of exactly what ‘uploading’ means,” because the province has so far provided few details. Tory also argued that the exercise could establish the value of subway assets, “so that if anything is done which affects them, we will be able to ensure fair and beneficial treatment for City of Toronto residents.”

Tory has publicly demanded that Premier Doug Ford consult him before taking steps to upload the subway. In his letter to Murray, Tory said that “it could even be argued” the information-sharing process “forms part of the discussion and consultation we insisted upon.”

The mayor asked the city manager to bring a report to council that would include the risks, including legal consequences, of not participating. The decision on whether to participate is expected to be debated at the first council meeting of the new term, which spans three days. It would be discussed on Dec. 13 with other urgent business.

The Conservative government has argued that the province has greater funding and decision-making authority than the city, and that uploading the subway would allow Queen’s Park to build new projects faster, better co-ordinate transit with other municipalities in the GTHA, and amortize maintenance costs over time.

But some councillors and transit advocates have warned that the province taking ownership of the subway would fracture Toronto’s transit network and spell disaster for the system, which also includes bus and streetcar networks that would remain in the city’s hands.

In an interview Friday, Councillor Gord Perks blasted the mayor’s recommendation that the city share information with the province.

“I don’t want to share the cellphone number for the chief general manager with the province. I don’t want to give them a subway map,” he said. “There is no circumstance under which uploading is good for the people of Toronto. We shouldn’t participate in the conversation at all.”

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam said the city would be entering the discussion from a place of weakness.

“In business, if you start participating in negotiations, you go down this road of exploring a transaction,” she said. “So, the question I would ask first and foremost is: Is the TTC subway system up for grabs?”

Relinquishing control of the city’s subways has not even been entertained at council in recent memory, Wong-Tam said.

“By even participating in this conversation with the province, I think, in some ways, we start going down the rabbit hole.”

Yurek’s letter also recommends the city and province convene a working group that would include Metrolinx, Infrastructure Ontario, the city, and the TTC, in order “to examine how best to advance the design and delivery” of the relief line subway, which TTC officials have described as Toronto’s top transit priority.

The first phase of the relief line would cost more than $6.8 billion and would connect Queen and Osgoode subway stations downtown to Pape on Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth). The project is seen as key to relieving crowding on Line 1 (Yonge-University-Spadina), and council has declared it must be open before a proposed extension of Line 1 to Richmond Hill in York Region.

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The Conservatives have strong political support in York and critics of the upload plan have expressed concerns the province would leverage ownership of the subway network to build the Line 1 extension before the relief line.

Yurek appeared to address those concerns in his letter to Tory.

“In recognition that the TTC’s Line 1 capacity issues are reaching a critical point, I know we both agree that work must be undertaken as quickly as possible to pursue the Downtown Relief Line,” he said.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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