Transit plans overshadowed by Premier Doug Ford’s own transit map. An opioid crisis made more challenging by provincial funding cuts. Uncertainty over the amalgamation of public health units.More than 100 days since a smaller Toronto city council took office — a decision also of the Ford government’s making — the mayor and the city’s 25 councillors were once again preoccupied Tuesday with top-down decisions from the province that would upturn their own long-term transit plans and go against their stated policy positions on public health.On Tuesday, as the sixth meeting of the council term unfolded, city staff were still scrambling to prepare an updated transit report. Councillors were unclear well into the afternoon on what they would be voting on this week. A debate on future transit expansion was pushed back to 4 p.m. to allow staff time to finalize their report and councillors a chance to — at least briefly — review their work. That’s because last week Ford announced his own transit vision for the city — a map of mostly subway lines for Etobicoke, downtown, Scarborough, and extending into Richmond Hill with few details on costs, funding, potential ridership, technology, construction logistics or implementation timelines. The premier’s announcement meant that recommendations city staff made as recently as last week to move forward with dedicating funding to council’s own priorities and construction on some projects, like a one-stop Scarborough subway, were rendered irrelevant. Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York) was particularly blunt, saying if Ford wants to be the mayor of Toronto, he should run for that office.“In the first nine months of this provincial government, they have cut council in half without notice, they have announced plans to significantly cut Toronto Public Health without notice and the have drawn a complete new transit map without notice,” he said. ...
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