The former provincial transportation minister sought the approval of a total of four new GO Transit stations that studies recommended against, amid what Metrolinx staff acknowledged internally could be seen as an “outside push” to alter planning evidence at the agency.

As the Star has previously reported, documents obtained through a freedom of information request show that in June 2016 the transportation ministry, which was then led by MPP Steven Del Duca, pressured Metrolinx, the arm’s length agency responsible for transportation planning in the GTHA, into approving the construction of Kirby and Lawrence East GO stations. A report commissioned by the agency had recommended neither be considered for at least another 10 years.

Those documents were partially redacted. The Star has since obtained unredacted versions that indicate Del Duca attempted to win approval for two other new GO stops that weren’t supported by studies: Park Lawn in South Etobicoke, and Highway 7-Concord in Vaughan.

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The Star has also obtained internal Metrolinx correspondence about the newspaper’s initial information request, which was filed last year. The correspondence includes drafts of briefing notes prepared by agency communications staff in 2017 that flagged potential issues that could arise from documents about the station approval process being published.

Taken together the documents paint a clearer picture of how Metrolinx’s planning process was derailed by Del Duca’s directives, and how the agency prepared to deal with the fallout of the interference being revealed in the media.

Following the pressure from the transportation ministry, Metrolinx altered reports to recommend Kirby and Lawrence East, and the agency’s board approved them as part of a proposed 12-stop expansion under GO’s $13.5-billion regional express rail program.

Kirby is in Duca’s riding in Vaughan, and Lawrence East in Scarborough is a critical part of Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack plan.

However, Metrolinx did not change its stance on Park Lawn or Highway 7-Concord, and those two stations were not approved.

Del Duca is no longer at the transportation ministry. In January, Premier Kathleen Wynne appointed him minister of economic development as part of a Liberal government cabinet shuffle.

The minister would not answer specific questions put to him by the Star about the station approval process.

“A couple of months ago, Metrolinx began a thorough review of all new GO stations,” he said in an emailed statement.

“I look forward to seeing the results.”

As the Star has previously reported, by June 2016, after spending a year and a half studying potential new station sites, Metrolinx had landed on a list of 10 that staff planned to recommend to the agency’s board. Kirby, Lawrence East, Park Lawn and Highway-7 Concord were not on the list.

Three weeks before a June 28, 2016, meeting at which the Metrolinx board was set to decide on the new stations, agency officials briefed Del Duca on the plans.

On June 9, 2016, Bruce McCuaig, then Metrolinx’s chief executive officer, wrote an email to Rob Prichard, chair of the agency’s board, saying the briefing had gone “so-so.” McCuaig believed Del Duca was “disappointed” by the exclusion of Kirby and Highway 7-Concord. Two days later, McCuaig wrote that he was “trying to see if there is a credible way to improve the business case” for Kirby.

In a draft briefing note prepared in 2017, a Metrolinx staffer analyzing the correspondence acknowledged that from McCuaig’s statement it “can be perceived that there is an outside push to change the business case” the arms-length agency had commissioned.

McCuaig’s effort to improve the Kirby business case was unsuccessful, and on June 15, 2016, the Metrolinx board met behind closed doors and endorsed the 10-stop list without any additions.

However, on June 16, 2016, the transportation ministry sent Metrolinx draft press releases that indicated Del Duca planned to announce Kirby, Lawrence East, Park Lawn and Highway 7-Concord would go ahead.

Senior Metrolinx officials were shocked and scrambled to get clarification from the government. A day later, after speaking to a policy adviser at the ministry, McCuaig reported to Prichard that “M apparently wants us to include Lawrence, Park Lawn, Concord, and Kirby.”

McCuaig would not confirm to the Star whether “M” referred to the minister personally or the ministry. But a July 2017 internal Metrolinx briefing note reveals that in its own analysis, agency officials understood “M” referred to Del Duca himself.

McCuaig has since left Metrolinx to take an advisory role at the federal government’s Canada Infrastructure Bank. He declined to answer questions for this story.

In the days after McCuaig reported the minister’s wishes to Prichard, Metrolinx officials changed the recommendations in a staff report going before the board to include Kirby and Lawrence East. The board reconvened on June 28, 2016, this time in public, and approved the two contentious stops, plus the original list of 10.

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One of the draft briefing notes prepared by Metrolinx in 2017 flagged as significant the fact that the records show McCuaig “took the lead ... to modify the recommendations to accommodate the minister’s direction.”

This internal assessment that the CEO altered staff advice at the minister’s request differs from Metrolinx’s public statements. Last year, the agency told the Star that Del Duca, along with local officials, had merely “made the case” that Kirby be included, and “after consideration, Metrolinx’s leadership concurred.”

None of the documents reveal why Metrolinx didn’t approve Park Lawn and Highway 7-Concord. Neither Metrolinx nor Del Duca addressed the question when it was put to them by the Star.

Both stops have strong support from local politicians, despite not being recommended by the planning studies.

Park Lawn would be on GO’s Lakeshore West line and serve the rapidly developing Humber Bay Shores community. The stop would cost an estimated $177.9 million to construct and would be just 1.3 kilometres east of the existing Mimico GO station.

That’s less than the agency’s minimum spacing requirement of 1.5 kilometres, and an initial business case for Park Lawn determined adding a second stop so close was “not an option.” Instead, building the new stop would be conditional on removing Mimico.

While Park Lawn would probably attract more riders than Mimico, the latter was already undergoing a $55-million renovation. The report concluded that demolishing Mimico would go against provincial policy, and the potential benefits of Park Lawn were “not nearly enough to offset the capital costs” of a new stop.

The Highway 7-Concord stop would be just east of Keele St. and Highway 7 in Vaughan, in the provincial riding that borders Del Duca’s and is represented by Ontario PC MPP Gila Martow.

York Region and the city of Vaughan have endorsed plans for the new station, which would cost roughly $130 million.

An initial business case determined that the additional time it would take for trains to stop at Highway 7-Concord would deter riders further north on the Barrie line from taking GO, resulting in a net loss of 2,900 daily riders. Over a 60-year period, the resulting shift toward car travel would cost the region $1.2 billion in transportation and environmental costs.

A subsequent report that ranked all the shortlisted station sties categorized Highway 7-Concord as one of the “low performing” stops that should not be considered for at least another 10 years.

Although the station business case studies and the ranking report were drafted before the board vote, Metrolinx didn’t release them until months later, long after Del Duca had publicly announced the 12 new stations at a series of press conferences.

After the Star’s initial investigation regarding Kirby and Lawrence East, Metrolinx pledged to be more transparent by releasing reports before board decisions, and publishing the minutes of closed-door board meetings.

In September the agency put Kirby and Lawrence East under review. Phil Verster, Metrolinx’s new CEO, has since expanded the exercise to include all 19 stations that made the final round of consideration. An update is expected to go to the board on March 8.

“Metrolinx is strengthening the approach to evaluation (as well as transparency) across a project’s life cycle in order to provide the board of directors and other decision makers with stronger guidance to make the best decisions,” Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said in an email.

“Most importantly though it will help our customers clearly understand the basis for these decisions.”

Kathryn McGarry, the new transportation minister, defended Metrolinx’s station approval process, saying the decisions in June 2016 were the “result of initial business case analysis, extensive consultation with municipal and regional representatives, community engagement, and collaboration between the ministry of transportation and Metrolinx.”

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