Council powerless to stop provincial takeover of TTC subway system, confidential city report says
(The Star Food)

Premier Doug Ford’s government has the legal authority to unilaterally take over the TTC subway system without offering the city as much as a cent in compensation, according to a confidential council report. The four-page document written by the city’s legal department and obtained by the Star is a confidential attachment to a public report released Monday on the province’s plan to take ownership of the subway network. The confidential legal opinion provides advice to councillors ahead of a key council vote on the proposal expected Thursday.The legal opinion lays out in stark terms how few options the municipal government likely has to prevent the province from taking control of the subway on terms dictated almost entirely by Queen’s Park. “The province can by legislation take over ownership of subway assets, including real property and other assets, and can do so without compensation to the City of Toronto or the TTC if the legislation expressly provides that no compensation shall be payable,” the report reads. While generally no entity in Ontario can take property from another without providing some kind of compensation, according to city staff the provincial government has the jurisdiction to legislate property rights in the province and “it could enact legislation that explicitly removes the city and/or the TTC’s right to compensation for subway lands, fixed assets, and chattels.”The province could also pass a law that would compensate the city for its subway assets at a level below market value or “otherwise in an amount considered to be inadequate by the city,” the report states. Legal staff speculate that by assuming responsibility for subway maintenance or other costs currently paid by the city as part of the upload, the Progressive Conservative government could argue it had provided fair compensation for Toronto’s rail assets. The report warns that the province could even leave Tor ...