LILLEY: Ford government seems to be helping Metrolinx hide incompetency

Article content

Incompetency and secrecy are a dangerous combination, but they both appear to be core to how Metrolinx operates. The provincial agency that oversees regional transit across southern Ontario has been trying to block the release of basic information for four months now.

The simple requests made to Metrolinx and the equally secretive Ford government were attempts to find out why they announced changes to the UP Express train one day and reversed course the next.

“For those travelling to and from the airport, every second UP Express train will soon be non-stop between Union Station and Pearson airport,” Premier Doug Ford said enthusiastically on April 15.

Perhaps the enthusiasm was due to him using a government announcement to campaign during the Milton byelection. Perhaps it was a poorly designed policy with no data to back it up and Ford didn’t know it was in the package of changes he was announcing.

Either way, we don’t know because neither Metrolinx nor the Ford government is willing to release the reasons they reversed course and cancelled the UP Express changes a little more than 24 hours after making them.

The morning after the announcement, Transportation Minister Prab Sarkaria was on TV defending and explaining the changes. By suppertime, he was backtracking and announcing the changes would not happen.

The speed of the reversal was enough to give anyone watching whiplash.

Surely there had to have been a good reason for the government to bring in the changes. Someone must have looked at data and said making every other UP Express train non-stop to the airport would be offset by expanded GO Train service.

Assuming the government was making fact-based decisions, we submitted a number of freedom-of-information requests – one to Metrolinx, one to the Ministry of Transportation and one to the Premier’s Office.

“Provide copies of any documents provided to the provincial government showing statistics on Metrolinx ridership and any analysis in support of UP Express plans. Timeframe: January 01, 2023-April 17, 2024,” the basic request said.

That should have been easy to answer. Sadly, that’s not the case.

Immediately, Metrolinx responded that they were transferring this request to the Ministry of Transportation and would not be answering. Shortly after that, the Ministry of Transportation replied that they were transferring the request to Metrolinx and would not be answering.

Only after protesting did both Metrolinx and the ministry agree to follow the law and answer the requests.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

On May 13, Metrolinx sent a letter asking for $225 in search fees to cover six hours of searching and one hour of preparation. The ministry followed on May 15 asking for $120 in search fees to cover four hours of looking for these documents.

After agreeing to pay the fees asked for by both Metrolinx and the ministry, they both took a 30-day extension into June. On May 17, the Cabinet Office, which represents the premier, replied that they would need an additional 30 days to find those documents.

The Cabinet Office later came back with a demand for $15 in search fees to release the documents.

Bottom line: It is late August, we have paid $360, waited more than 130 days and we don’t know what information the decision to change the UP Express was based on.

How does it take more than four months to give details on a decision that lasted less than 36 hours?

So far just four pages of documentation from the Cabinet Office have been released, almost all of it redacted and none of it revealing any insight. Metrolinx has promised to release information soon after more than four months, but warns it too will be redacted under section 13 of the legislation, which covers advice to government, and under section 18(1), which is a catch-all for anything them deem to be in the “economic and other interests of Ontario.”

This is nothing but obfuscation, a desire by Metrolinx and the Ford government to keep the public in the dark. This is not how government should work; this is not how freedom of information should work.

Given the record of Metrolinx and the Ford government hiding anything that would reveal their incompetence when it comes to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, we shouldn’t be shocked they are hiding their incompetence on this file.