More than 60 per cent of Torontonians believe the Scarborough subway extension will cost more than the current projection.

A Forum Research poll has found that out of the 840 Toronto voters polled, 48 per cent said that the $3.34 billion price tag for the Scarborough subway and stacked bus garage is unreasonable. About a third (33 per cent) said the cost was reasonable, and 19 per cent said they didn’t know.

“Almost half of voters think the cost of the Scarborough subway extension project is unreasonable, and more than six in 10 think it will cost more than currently budgeted,” said Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

Voters who said the cost is unreasonable were mostly aged 45 to 54 (54 per cent) or 55 to 64 (53 per cent), more likely to be men (52 per cent), earning between $80,000 and $100,000 (56 per cent) with a college or university degree (51 per cent) or a postgraduate degree (52 per cent).

“People with higher incomes are probably paying higher taxes, and they’re probably more concerned about this and are taking more risk over it,” Bozinoff said. “They’re more pessimistic because if it’s going to bite someone, it’s going to bite them more.”

Political support did not appear to correlate with support for the subway costs, with people on all areas of the political spectrum voting in different directions.

The survey suggests that voters supporting Doug Ford for mayor (48 per cent), NDP (59 per cent) and the Green Party (61 per cent) were more likely to vote that the subway costs were unreasonable, while supporters of the Liberals (37 per cent) or Progressive Conservatives (38 per cent) were more likely to believe that the subway costs were reasonable.

“A lot of it I think has to do with where you have to travel, where you live and where you go to work,” said Bozinoff. “Geography cuts across political parties. People in Scarborough are generally on board, but in the rest of the city, the case has not been made about the economic effect of the subway.”

Respondents were also more likely to find the cost reasonable if they were aged 34 or younger (36 per cent), 35 to 44 (38 per cent), earning between $40,000 and $60,000 (49 per cent), with some university or college education (43 per cent) or living in Scarborough (44 per cent).

Only 12 per cent of voters think the subway extension will be completed on budget. Eight per cent said that the project will be finished under budget and 17 per cent don’t know how much the final costs will be.

Bozinoff said the voters who believe the subway will cost less than the projected budget probably think that a lot can be done with $3 billion. “They think that’s a huge amount of money for a one-stop subway,” he said. “It could seem like a lot of money to a lot of people. They’re probably thinking it can’t possibly cost that much. But they’re way, way in the minority.”

Those who think the extension project will cost more than currently budgeted are more likely to live in Etobicoke (69 per cent), the Former City of Toronto (68 per cent), support the NDP (68 per cent) or the Conservatives (65 per cent), and be in the wealthiest income category (73 per cent). Men were also more likely to say that the extension project will be overbudget, at 66 per cent.

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Respondents who believe that subway will not surpass the current budget are more likely to be the least wealthy (19 per cent) or earning between $20,000 and $40,000 (22 per cent) and supporting the Liberals (15 per cent).

The poll was conducted on Apr. 6 through a random sampling of public opinion of 840 Torontonians. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.