The city’s audit committee has rejected a push to conduct a value-for-money analysis of the Scarborough subway.

On Friday, a motion from Councillor Josh Matlow for that comparison of the approved, one-stop, $3.35 billion subway extension to the seven-stop LRT alternative failed in a 1-4 vote. Councillors Christin Carmichael Greb, Michael Ford, Stephen Holyday, and Chin Lee voted against it.

That decision came as the auditor general presented a work plan for future audits for next year, the last of the term and ahead of an anticipated staff report on the updated cost of the Scarborough subway, which is expected to rise.

“My question for you is: Do you want to have all the relevant facts before you to inform your decision?” said Matlow, who has been critical of the subway plan, at committee. He has been chiefly concerned about the lack of information provided to justify it.

“If you would prefer the one-stop subway and if the information comes back to support that argument, in fact, if you always believed it would, then what do you have to be afraid of?”

The work plan will be considered by council next month. The auditor general has the power to conduct her own investigations without direction from council, but on Friday the auditor, Beverly Romeo-Beehler, told the Star she has decided against doing such a comparison because, she said, it is not her role to re-open council decisions.

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who was chosen by Mayor John Tory to champion the subway project, called Matlow’s motion a “back-door attempt” to “sabotage” the subway.

Top bureaucrat, City Manager Peter Wallace, confirmed in March that staff have never been directed to do and therefore have never presented such an analysis.

The vote on a value-for-money analysis was followed by a discussion of a controversial briefing note that was produced last year before a crucial vote.

That briefing note, produced by the TTC and which cast doubt on the feasibility of returning to the fully-funded LRT plan, was the subject of a complaint to the auditor general.

Romeo-Beehler found no evidence that TTC CEO Andy Byford or his staff deliberately misled council, nor did she find any evidence of political interference.

She did outline several problems with the briefing note, including a cost calculation and its limited distribution. It was initially provided to just the mayor’s office and that of TTC chair Councillor Josh Colle. It was subsequently leaked to CP24 by the mayor’s office, the Star earlier confirmed.

On Friday, Matlow outlined questions that still remain, including why Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that was in charge of the LRT project, didn’t verify the contents of the TTC-produced briefing note that were “easily verifiable.”

The briefing note raised doubts an LRT could still fit in the existing corridor, replacing the aging Scarborough RT.

When the Star earlier asked Metrolinx to confirm whether the LRT would still fit in the corridor, as their earlier work had stated, a spokesperson confirmed that it did.

On Friday, Matlow produced an email from senior TTC official Gary Carr saying he’d met with a senior Metrolinx official responsible for the corridor where the LRT would have run in the midst of the briefing note being drafted. It’s unclear if they discussed constraints in the corridor with an LRT option.

The auditor general also found an email from former Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig to Byford during that time where McCuaig indicated a cost estimate provided for the LRT was too high — by $320 million. That figure was never adjusted and McCuaig’s comments weren’t noted in revised versions of the briefing note.

“The TTC co-operated fully with the (auditor general), providing all correspondence relevant to this issue, including correspondence with Metrolinx. Staff were exonerated of any wrongdoing by the AG. Any further questions on this matter should be directed to her office,” TTC spokesperson Brad Ross wrote in an email Friday.

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Metrolinx declined to comment. McCuiag could not be reached for comment.

Matlow maintained there were “significant errors” and omissions in the briefing note and that he didn’t believe that a request for the briefing note “began at the TTC.”

“The briefing note was ultimately used as a political tool that influenced the outcome of a council vote that led to a one-stop subway that will serve far fewer Scarborough residents for over a billion dollars more of the city’s limited funds.”

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