Frustrated Toronto city councillors are considering installing signs blaming the provincial government for traffic caused by work to remove bike lanes on three major city roads, echoing a tactic the Ford government once used to attack the federal carbon price.
During a meeting on Thursday, councillors agreed to a number of steps designed to resist a provincial plan to remove bike lanes from Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue.
A majority of councillors backed a motion designed to try and make the provincial government rethink its plan.
It suggested several avenues, including advocacy, to try and stop the bike removal policy that is currently being fast-tracked through the legislative process. The motion formally asked the Ford government to leave the city’s bike lanes alone and asked the city’s legal team to review its options.
If those steps fail, the city is considering an alternative plan.
Staff will be asked to explore the possibility of installing signs beside bike lane removal, blaming the provincial government for the inconvenience. The signs would be added to any construction needed to rip out the cycling infrastructure.
“This road congestion and traffic delay is the result of Premier Ford’s Bill 212,” the motion suggests the signs should read.
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A spokesperson for the city said no formal work had begun to prepare those signs because the province’s plan has not yet received Royal Assent and has not been passed into law.
If Toronto goes ahead with the idea, it would be similar to a Ford government policy from 2019. In that case, the provincial government ordered all gas stations to have stickers telling people a portion of the final cost at the pump was because of federal carbon pricing.
An Ontario court eventually found forcing private gas stations to post stickers designed to “‘stick it to’ another tier of government or political party” was unconstitutional.
Despite the salvo of opposition attempts from city hall, the province appears set on its plan.
Premier Doug Ford previously said he plans to remove cycling infrastructure from Bloor, Yonge and University, regardless of what the data says.
A recent city report estimated the cost of removing bike lanes from the three roads in Toronto would be $48 million, with months of road closures. The report also claimed the city would lose roughly $27 million spent in total installing them.
The province has promised to pay the cost of removing bike lanes — although it won’t cover soft costs like staff planning time or money lost installing the infrastructure.
The Ford government remains adamant taking the lanes out is the right thing to do — and will improve traffic in the long run.
“It’s clear that the city’s approach isn’t working and we encourage them to listen to the thousands of common sense drivers to help clear our major roads and get people out of traffic,” a provincial spokesperson recently told Global News.
Locally, however, many elected officials remain furious.
“This (is) definitely a shift from how we’ve seen him behave in the past with many conversations,” Coun. Jennifer McKelvie said of Premier Ford on Thursday.
“I’m hopeful he will get back to being data-driven and have a real conversation with us.”