Ontario has put Bombardier on notice that it intends to cancel the contract it has with the company for light rail vehicles.

The ministry of transportation confirmed to the Star on Thursday that Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, has issued a formal notice of intent to terminate its $770-million contract for up to 182 Bombardier LRVs.

Metrolinx signed the deal with the Quebec-based plane and train manufacturer in 2010, and the vehicles were to be used on planned LRT lines in Toronto, including the $5.3-billion Eglinton Crosstown, and potentially other transit projects in Ontario as well.

The order has been repeatedly delayed, however, and the province has grown increasingly impatient. The company has yet to deliver the pilot vehicle for the Crosstown, which was originally supposed to arrive in 2014. Since then Bombardier has blown several new deadlines for the pilot.

“I know that there has been some concerns about Bombardier’s performance as there have been significant quality and manufacturing issues that, to-date, have not been resolved. As a result, we have taken the next step available to us through our contract. We will continue to work with Bombardier on this issue and we will deliver on our transit commitments,” said Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca in an emailed statement.

A spokesperson for the minister referred questions about the notice to Metrolinx, but the agency refused to comment, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. A Metrolinx spokesperson wouldn’t say how long it might take to find another vehicle supplier if it scraps the deal with Bombardier, or whether the opening of the Crosstown could be delayed.

Marc-André Lefebvre, a spokesperson for Bombardier, played down the significance of Metrolinx’s notice.

“It’s just a normal contractual procedure,” he said. “There’s no visceral reaction on Bombardier’s part to this.”

Lefebvre said that production of the full fleet isn’t scheduled to begin until 2018, and asserted that would give the company enough time to deliver all of the Crosstown vehicles in time to have them in service by 2021, as stipulated by the contract. The line will require 76 vehicles when it opens.

Metrolinx representatives are at Bombardier’s Thunder Bay, Ont. plant this week to inspect the pilot vehicle and Lefebvre said the company is working closely with the province to move the order forward. He wouldn’t say if Bombardier would take the province to court if it goes through with cancelling the contract.

“We believe that we’re entirely meeting our contractual obligations in this project,” he said.

The province’s notice of intent, which was issued in the past week, doesn’t guarantee that Ontario will terminate the LRV contract, but it is the next step in the process of potentially doing so. The province had already issued Bombardier a notice of default in July, claiming that the company was in breach of contract over the delays.

In another sign the province was having second thoughts about the contract, over the summer Metrolinx signalled to the consortia vying to construct the Finch West LRT that the agency would be open to them including vehicle suppliers as part of their bids. Metrolinx had previously said it planned to use the Bombardier vehicles on the line.

The TTC’s order for new streetcars from the company has also been plagued by delays. The company is now aiming to deliver the 30th new car by the end of the year, but that’s less than half of the 73 vehicles that the TTC was supposed to have by the end of 2015.

Metrolinx’s legal gambit is the latest bad news to hit Bombardier. The company has been struggling with delays and cost overruns to its C-Series jet program, and last month announced it was laying off 7,500 workers, or a tenth of its global workforce. Roughly two-thirds of the losses were from the firm’s rail division.

Earlier this year the company secured a $1 billion investment from the Quebec government to shore up operations. It’s now seeking a matching sum from Ottawa.

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