Ontario should pay for initial bike lane installation: city manager

If Doug Ford wants to tear out key Toronto bike lanes, then his government should be covering the cost of not only their removal, but also for staff and planning time for their original installation, the city's manager says.

Speaking on CBC Radio's Metro Morning Tuesday, Paul Johnson said "significant" work that amounts to millions of dollars went into the planning and construction of bike lanes on Bloor and Yonge streets, as well as on University Avenue.

"Our cycling program is incredibly important in Toronto. We are committed to it. If there's a few kilometres of this that we have to adjust [due to] legislation, we'll figure that out when the legislation is finally passed," Johnson said. 

"But in the meantime, we're going to be very clear on what our total cost is — I don't think the City of Toronto taxpayer should pay twice for this."

The Progressive Conservative government tabled a bill last month that would require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic. The government has said bike lanes are contributing to gridlock, a claim critics have disputed.

WATCH | Mayor responds to province's bike lane plans: 

Mayor Chow calls Ontario’s plan to remove bike lanes ‘arbitrary’

26 days ago

Duration 1:26

The Ontario government is planning to remove three sections of bike lanes in Toronto. At a news conference on Friday, Mayor Olivia Chow emphasized there have been several studies done in recent years that support the existing bike lanes.

The province is going further through regulation, posting a proposed new rule that would require the removal of sections of the Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue bike lanes, restoring them as lanes for vehicle traffic. The province's transportation minister has said that entire bike lanes could be removed.

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

The regulation says Ontario would also establish a review process for existing bike lanes that were created through removing a lane of vehicle traffic, to decide if they should be maintained or removed.

When asked about the issue at an unrelated news conference Tuesday, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria again affirmed that the Bloor, University and Yonge Street bike lanes "will be removed to get people moving once again."

Sarkaria did not say when directly asked, however, if the province would cover the cost of previous time and planning for the city.

"We're going to reimburse the removal of the bike lanes," he said, without answering the rest of the question.

At Queen's Park Tuesday, the government also moved to speed up the bill's passing, which house leader Steve Clark said was necessary due to a short legislative session.

"The government's been very clear on bike lanes," he said.

"My job as house leader is to get legislation moving."

Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles, however, was quick to point out that this government recently had what she called a "record-long summer vacation" this year, after a 19-week break.

"I don't think this government is concerned with reality or the facts, they just want to push it through to distract Ontarians," she said. "It's pretty clear to me that the cost of this isn't a concern to Doug Ford. He is just doing this to distract and divide people at any cost."

The city says it plans to release year-round data from 18 locations on its bike lane network at the end of November, and that data from the University bike lanes shows that congestion on that stretch is likely due to construction projects, not cycle tracks.

As for the Bloor Street and Yonge Street bike lanes, the city said the data shows they are well used.