Ontario transport minister not offering estimate of Toronto bike lane removal cost

Ontario's transportation minister says he doesn't believe the City of Toronto's estimate that it will cost $48 million to remove bike lanes on three major roads, but he was not able to provide an estimate of his own Monday.

The Progressive Conservative government is fast-tracking legislation that would require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

It also plans to go one step further and remove sections of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue bike lanes and restore them as lanes for vehicle traffic.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow asked city staff to look into what can be done to push back, and a staff report last week concluded that work to remove the three bike lanes would cost more than $48 million and likely lead to only minimally faster commutes for drivers.

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said the province will foot the bill for removal costs, but he doesn't believe the city's estimate, as it is double the price tag of the initial installation.

He suggested, however, that the province did not come up with its own estimate before proposing to remove the existing bike lanes.

"We're going to look at it," he said after question period. "It just doesn't add up to me that it costs double the amount to remove them as it would to put them forward."

The cost of not removing the impugned bike lanes is "far greater," Sarkaria suggested.

"We know the gridlock that is being caused on a daily basis," he said.

"We hear it from local business owners. We hear it from people that are using those streets every single day. These have caused major congestion. People are frustrated."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has complained about some bike lanes creating gridlock, in particular a stretch of Bloor Street W. that is about a 10-minute drive from his home in Toronto's west end.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles suggested that no price tag would be acceptable.

"This is, again, the government of Ontario, the people of Ontario, being forced to pay the price for this premier's personal grievances," she said.

A legislative committee conducted one day of public hearings on the legislation Monday, which featured a City of Toronto official who defended the cost estimate.

The province has identified three roads with about 20 kilometres of bike lanes, but it hasn't identified which segments it wants removed, said Jacquelyn Hayward, the city's director of planning, design and management.

"The entirety of the cost is indicative of the fact that in sections that have been recently reconstructed, there are concrete curbs separating the bike lanes from the motor vehicle traffic," she said.

"There are catch basins that have been moved as a result. In order to put back the lanes in some places, you would have to redo the roads."

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario said that cities are best positioned to make decisions on municipal issues such as bike lanes, without provincial intervention.

Executive director Brian Rosborough cast doubt on the provincial government's assertion that bike lanes on major roads could simply be moved to secondary roads.

"If it was a good idea, the municipalities would surely do it without provincial intervention," he said.

"Our point is that communities are well-positioned to make these decisions effectively and if there is transportation science related to the relocation of bike lanes, that's something municipalities, I'm sure, would take into consideration. Our concern is about the province substituting its authority for municipal authority, because we don't have a lot of examples of where that has been successful."