Premier Doug Ford has promised to consult with Toronto’s mayor before making any decision on taking over the TTC subway network, but he reiterated his position that uploading the lines to the province would be beneficial for the region’s transit users.

His comments came hours after Mayor John Tory warned the city “will not accept” a repeat on the transit file of the Conservative government’s surprise move to cut the size of council ahead of the October municipal election.

“We’re going to work hand in hand, with not just Mayor John Tory if he is the mayor in October, but other mayors in the region,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday when asked about a potential subway upload.

But Ford signalled that having the province take ownership of the city’s subway infrastructure remains on his government’s agenda.

“When we take over something as large as transit, I think it’s nothing but a benefit to the city of Toronto. We’re taking this off their shoulders. The reason we’re doing it, as I’ve said all along, for 12 years we just can’t seem to get transit built in the city of Toronto,” he said.

In fact, construction of significant transit projects has either been started or completed in Toronto in recent years. The TTC opened the six-stop, $3.2-billion subway extension to York Region at the end of 2017, while the 19-kilometre, $5.3-billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT, which is being built by the province and has been called the largest infrastructure project in Ontario’s history, is well underway.

Fielding questions Wednesday morning about a potential upload of the subway network, Tory said he would only be willing to entertain the idea if it was first subjected to “robust consultation” with the public, TTC and city staff, and if it represented “a good deal for the people of Toronto.”

“It’s our TTC, it’s our subway, paid for largely by Toronto taxpayers and customers over time,” he said.

Tory said that in his first official meeting with Transportation Minister John Yakabuski on Tuesday, he made it clear the city “will not accept seeing a repeat” of the surprise move to shrink council, “where they just come in one day and announce, ‘This is what we had in mind.’”

Tory noted that since taking power two months ago, the Conservative government hasn’t made a specific proposal about uploading the subway, and Yakabuski didn’t suggest Tuesday that a move was imminent.

In the run-up to the June 7 provincial election, the Progressive Conservatives proposed having Ontario take ownership of Toronto’s subway network but allowing the TTC to continue to operate the trains and collect fare revenue.

They framed the move as effectively a bookkeeping manoeuvre, arguing that having the subway on Ontario’s books would allow the province to take advantage of accounting practices not available to the city, which would allow it to more efficiently finance subway expansion. The Conservatives promised to contribute $160 million annually to major capital maintenance as part of the deal.

In a scrum Monday, Yakabuski seemed to open the door to a much more extensive takeover of the TTC, however, telling reporters that the party’s promise to upload the subway “can mean a lot of things to a lot of people” and “everything is on the table.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

His office later walked those comments back. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson said: “The government is focused on a plan to upload the responsibility for subway infrastructure from the City of Toronto.

“This includes the building and maintenance of new and existing subway lines. Responsibility for day-to-day operations would remain with the city and the TTC.”

With files from David Rider and Rob Ferguson

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

Read more about: