Toronto City council voted on Wednesday to further trim down former mayor John Tory’s embattled SmartTrack transit line, but the controversial scaling-back of the once-ambitious transit line didn’t go down without some textbook municipal politics shenanigans.
City Council has adopted a plan to deliver just three stations for the SmartTrack line, placing two previously planned stations on the back burner due to funding constraints.
The revised SmartTrack plan will see East Harbour, Bloor-Lansdowne and St. Clair-Old Weston prioritized following the revelation that the project’s approximate $1.7 billion scope could no longer fund an earlier five-station plan.
It marks the latest pruning for the project, which was initially pitched as a 22-station line as part of John Tory’s 2014 mayoral campaign, with the promise that it could be built within seven years.
Approval of the three-station SmartTrack plan passed by a vote of 20-3 this week, though the process came with some humorous theatrics from Parkdale–High Park Councillor Gord Perks.
Perks moved a motion to amend the SmartTrack plan, proposing five absolutely bonkers names for the three approved and two on-hold stations.
Perks’ motion asked City council to “replace the names of the SmartTrack stations with the following names,” proceeding to list a totally unhinged batch of titles, including “Boondoggle Station, Too Good to Be True, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated, and Tory’s Folly.”
Councillor Perks has moved a motion on Item CC24.3 – SmartTrack Stations Program – Update: https://t.co/Yr6MeZWSxS #tocouncil pic.twitter.com/B7AR380Evp
— Toronto City Clerk (@TorontoCouncil) December 18, 2024
Perks’ creative station names took aim at SmartTrack’s history of over-promising and under-delivering.
The councillor offers some insight into his music tastes with classic rock and punk references, shouting out a rock anthem by the Who, and referencing an iconic line delivered at the final Sex Pistols concert.
But the most pointed reference was a jab at John Tory, who sold Toronto on a vision of rapid transit zipping along urban rail corridors over ten years ago, with the city still having nothing to show for it.
Some were not pleased with the theatrics, including councillor and former mayoral candidate Brad Bradford, who called the move “classic City Hall.”
“The Mayor’s administration is wasting your time and taxpayer dollars with a cheap shot motion,” Bradford wrote on X. “Debate the merits of a policy? Sure. But this is an unserious motion from an unserious government.”
Despite its comedic relief, Perks’ motion was quickly ruled Out of Order, which is pretty understandable for such a bananas proposal.
