Spadina LRT Barriers
Ward 24 (Downtown)
(City Council on July 6, 7 and 8, 1999, deferred consideration of this Clause to the next regular meeting of City Council to
be held on July 27, 1999, and the Chair, Toronto Transit Commission, the Interim Chief General Manager, Toronto
Transit Commission, the Chair, Planning and Transportation Committee and the Commissioner of Works and Emergency
Services were requested to submit a joint report thereon directly to Council.)
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(Clause No. 5 of Report No. 1 of the Policy and Finance Committee)
The Policy and Finance Committee reports having requested the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer to submit a
report directly to Council, for its meeting scheduled to be held on July 6, 1999, respecting the funding required for
the construction of the permanent barriers on Spadina Avenue.
The Policy and Finance Committee submits the following communication (June 23, 1999) from Councillor Olivia
Chow, City Councillor, Downtown:
Recommendation:
It is recommended that the funding of $1 - $1.5 million required to construct permanent barriers on Spadina Avenue be
found from the under-expenditure of TTC 1999-2000 Capital Budget.
Background:
During the budget deliberation in the spring, the Budget Committee referred the funding required to construct permanent
barriers on Spadina Avenue to the June meeting of the Budget Committee. The instruction during that time was to find the
funds from within the TTC budget (from under-expenditure).
Council approved the construction of permanent barriers on Spadina Avenue in the spring of this year. Unfortunately, the
TTC made a decision that since it is a transportation issue, the City's Transportation Department should fund the project.
The Transportation Department decided that since the barriers will be constructed to assist streetcars, TTC should pay for
them. As a result, even though the design of these barriers was done a year ago, no funding was put aside for them!
In approving these permanent barriers, Council also said that the temporary ones on Spadina should be removed by
December 1, 1999.
Without a decision on where the funds would come from, these permanent barriers will not be built this year. Cars will
continue to cause accidents by hitting TTC streetcars until mid-2000, the next budget cycle.
