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A Tale of Three Stations

In the summer of 2018 Metrolinx came to Mimico to show residents its plans for three GO stations in Etobicoke–Lakeshore.

Then the provincial government changed.

In the fall of 2018 Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation directed Metrolinx to stop procuring new stations and go “market-driven.”

The plans for Mimico and Park Lawn were handed to the developers who owned the land next door, as Transit-Oriented Developments (later renamed Transit-Oriented Communities, or TOCs).

Long Branch had no developer beside it and stayed in the public contract.

Eight years on, Long Branch’s tunnel is in the ground. Mimico’s developer went into receivership (second time that happened for 327 Royal York Road), and Park Lawn’s has paused.

Since August 2025, the Province has required the City to zone for minimum densities around both Mimico and Park Lawn, even though Park Lawn has no station. The density rules do not depend on whether the trains can carry the extra riders. After Metrolinx ended the contract meant to deliver 15-minute service, nobody can say when train service will become more frequent.

Timeline of Three Stations in Etobicoke – Lakeshore

When will Mimico GO be barrier-free?

Nobody will say. Metrolinx promised Mimico GO a tunnel with elevators by 2016, then by 2023. When the station was handed to Vandyk in 2018, Metrolinx’s own announcement said: “A fully-accessible temporary station will be in place by 2023 while Vandyk constructs the new building, according to Metrolinx. A date for the permanent station’s completion has yet to be negotiated.” Ontario’s legal deadline for an accessible province, January 1, 2025, passed too: Metrolinx’s own plan lists Mimico and Long Branch as the last GO stations without step-free access.

In May Metrolinx wrote to a Mimico resident that the 2005 law meant to make Ontario accessible by 2025 is ‘not retroactive,’ and that upgrades at existing stations like Mimico GO are ‘only required once renovations or construction occurs.’

The only way to the Mimico GO platforms, May 2026: stairs down to a single tunnel. Photo: Mimico Residents’ Association.

In May 2025 Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, announced a contract to design a new tunnel at Mimico GO. That same month MPP Lee Fairclough together with residents collected nearly 1,000 signatures asking for construction to start in 2025, and she took them to Queen’s Park.

Petition day at Mimico GO, May 27, 2025, with MPP Lee Fairclough and Councillor Amber Morley, in front of Vandyk’s hoarding. Photo: Mimico Residents’ Association.

By May 2026 Metrolinx had swapped Mimico’s tunnel for a pedestrian bridge that takes riders several storeys up and over the tracks. One of its stated reasons was future connections to TOC development on neighbouring land. Metrolinx’s own GO station design standard says tunnels are shorter, more direct and more accessible. One stop west, the Long Branch tunnel was pushed under three live tracks without closing the line.

Mimico GO’s bridge, 15 years apart: GO Transit’s 2011 overhead-bridge option and the bridge Metrolinx showed residents in 2026. Renderings: GO Transit (2011) and Metrolinx, May 13, 2026.

The Mimico Transit Forum, June 2, 2026, during National AccessAbility Week. Councillor Amber Morley and MPP Lee Fairclough came to support residents. Metrolinx was there too, but could not say when residents in wheelchairs will be able to use the station. Photo: Mimico Residents’ Association.

A week after our Transit Forum, the MRA wrote to the Metrolinx Board, and 60 of you wrote too. Our first question was simple: “When will the station have barrier-free access to the platforms?” We also asked what risk assessment of Vandyk the Board considered when it endorsed the partnership on October 22, 2018, and whether any performance bonds, guarantees or step-in rights protected the public if the developer failed. At its June 25 meeting the Board promised to answer every letter. The reply of July 2, written by a Metrolinx vice-president “on behalf of” the Board, gave no date and did not answer the questions about risk.

So on September 8 we wrote to the Board again, asking on the record:

  • “How many years from now do you expect Mimico GO to have barrier-free access to GO Transit?”

  • “Do Metrolinx Board members believe that Metrolinx has an obligation under the AODA to make GO Transit barrier-free, including at existing stations such as Mimico?”

  • “Who decided to remove Mimico GO Accessibility from the RFP that is currently building the Long Branch Accessibility Tunnel?”

  • “When will 15 minute service become available at Mimico GO?”

At the Board’s September 10 meeting, board member Bryan Davies asked Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay to respond to our letter.

Watch on YouTube · 41:07Metrolinx Board of Directors, September 10, 2026 Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay answers our letter on Mimico GO

His answer:

“The start of early works and construction on Mimico station. The first phase due to begin in the next couple of weeks. It will start essentially with reconfigurations and changes to parking and laydown areas, which will enable more major construction. We are expecting that that will include the resolution of what has been the empty Vandyk, former Vandyk development site next to the station. So this is my home station, and I would simply say to my community members, friends and neighbours: in the next couple of weeks you’re going to see big things happening.

Accessibility has always been one of the questions associated with this project. We continue to work with relevant experts when it comes to accessibility to try to understand how our design should be influenced not only by minimum standards, but by standards that actually meet people where they live. And that is our continuing commitment.”

He did not say how many years until the station will have barrier-free access.

It’s been almost 3 weeks and we have not received a response whether the board believes that Metrolinx has an obligation under the law, or who took Mimico out of the Long Branch tender. Lindsay’s answer also did not say whether Metrolinx is building a bridge or a tunnel. Metrolinx’s own Mimico GO project page still promises “a new south tunnel entrance” with elevators, and its community documents page was taken down months ago.

Does anyone still owe Mimico a station?

Who was trusted with it matters. When the Province chose Vandyk in 2018, the company was known for townhomes, brownstones and low-rise homes; its first mid-rise condos, with 10-storey buildings, were still being finished in 2020. At Mimico it was to build six towers of up to 36 storeys and a GO station over a live rail line.

In April 2026 City Council, on Councillor Morley’s motion, directed the City Manager to ask Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx for “an outline of the risk assessment practices undertaken before entering into a Transit Oriented Community.”

Vandyk’s undertaking to Metrolinx promised a Royal York bridge, public art and 5% affordable units. None of this was written into the Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) that Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing issued in April 2022, which carried no conditions. The promises lived only in Vandyk’s agreements with Metrolinx. In late 2023 Vandyk’s lenders began moving to put its projects into receivership.

When will Park Lawn GO get built?

Metrolinx’s own 2020 business case priced Park Lawn GO at $86–96 million, with benefits up to 1.9 times the cost. It also said the station would be built “by, and at the cost of third parties,” that Metrolinx had “no existing plans to fund or construct” it outside the TOC program, and it named the risk plainly: “if the overall development is cancelled or delayed it could jeopardize implementation of the station.”

That is what happened. Here is Metrolinx’s response to MPP Fairclough, as she published it in October 2025:

“The proposed Park Lawn GO Station falls under the Province’s Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program, which aims to create opportunities for third parties to fund the design and delivery of new transit infrastructure for Metrolinx to operate. All third-party agreements for new stations are subject to provincial approval and will be designed and constructed in accordance with Metrolinx standards and requirements. New GO stations delivered through the TOC program are dependent on third-party timelines.

Park Lawn GO Station is being planned in partnership with Lakeshore Developments Inc. (LDI). LDI is responsible for the planning and construction of the station; timelines are at the discretion of the developer. Earlier this year, Metrolinx was informed by the developer that they are pausing work as they review their development plans.

We remain open to the opportunity for a third party to deliver a proposed new Park Lawn GO Station along the Lakeshore West GO line in the City of Toronto.”

Read it closely. Metrolinx states that Park Lawn GO belongs to the Province’s TOC program. Metrolinx only operates what a third party builds, every agreement needs provincial approval, and the timeline is the developer’s. The people who can fix Park Lawn are Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria, and Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure. That was Kinga Surma until a couple of weeks ago; since September 10 it is David Piccini.

On October 30, 2025, MPP Fairclough asked Minister Sarkaria and the acting Minister of Infrastructure, Todd McCarthy, to remove Park Lawn from the TOC program and make it a Metrolinx priority.

In April 2026 Councillor Amber Morley told City Council that the Province had approved Park Lawn for density “without any station in place and no clear path forward,” and that in Humber Bay Shores “the community has already arrived.”

In 2025 City Council directed the City Manager or other appropriate staff, in consultation with the Ward 3 Councillor, to engage in intergovernmental discussions with the Province on the prioritization of the Park Lawn GO Station and establishing “a clear path to delivery.”

Even a built station faces a capacity problem. The same business case warns that eastbound morning trains reach capacity before Park Lawn by 2041.

Density now, station maybe

On August 15, 2025, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, approved Toronto’s transit station areas, including Mimico and Park Lawn as Protected Major Transit Station Areas. The City was required to update its zoning within a year to allow at least the minimum densities, and that zoning cannot be appealed on use, density or height. The rules apply to “existing or planned” stations, so Park Lawn’s density does not wait for Park Lawn’s station. Long Branch, the one station where construction is actually under way, is not on the list.

And if City Council says no? A developer can appeal a refusal, or a decision that takes too long, to the Ontario Land Tribunal, which can then approve the project itself. Since June 2024, residents’ groups like ours can no longer appeal at all.

MPP Lee Fairclough is trying to even the odds. On September 11 she wrote to us asking residents to sign a petition to bring back the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre, which gave communities free, independent planning advice and, in some cases, legal representation at the Ontario Land Tribunal until the Province eliminated it in 2019. Please reach out to MPP Fairclough’s office to sign it.

How much does a free station cost?

In 2018 Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said the value Metrolinx would receive “exceeds the value of the air rights,” and promised a station at “little or no cost to the taxpayer.”

The 2019 Ontario Budget went further: Mimico would be “the first of many” stations delivered “at no cost to taxpayers.” CBC reported that the station was expected to cost $102 million. Eight years later there is no new Mimico GO station, and taxpayers are paying for its design all over again.

Over the same years Ontario’s net debt grew from $323.8 billion in March 2018 to $455.0 billion in March 2026, an increase of $131 billion, or 40%. The 2026 Budget forecasts $529.3 billion by March 2029

Ontario net debt: $323.8 billion by March 2018, 151 years after Confederation, then up $131 billion (40%) in the 8 years to March 2026. The 2026 Budget forecasts $529.3 billion by March 2029, the furthest year the government projects. Sources: Public Accounts 2017–18, 2025–26, FAO note on the 2026 Budget. The forecast uses the 2026 Budget’s new definition of net debt, which is about $11 billion lower.

Where is Queen’s Park?

The people who launched and managed the Mimico TOC are still in charge. Kinga Surma, who stood at the 2018 announcement, ran the TOC program as Minister of Infrastructure until September 10, when the Premier moved her to Treasury Board and made David Piccini minister. Michael Lindsay, who ran Infrastructure Ontario through the TOC years, now runs Metrolinx.

Our MPP, Lee Fairclough, sits in opposition and cannot ask the ministers in Question Period right now. The Legislature rose on June 2 and does not return until October 27, a 21-week break.

Our next round of questions

Our September letter to the Board is still unanswered in writing. We are collecting questions to send to the November Metrolinx Board meeting, Infrastructure Ontario, Minister Sarkaria and Minister Piccini:

  • Who was responsible for building the temporary accessible station promised for Mimico GO by 2023, and why was it never built?

  • Has Metrolinx or the Province filed a claim in the Vandyk receivership for the cost of that station, or any other damages? For how much?

  • What risk assessment was done before the Province chose a builder of mostly townhomes and low-rise homes to deliver Mimico, its first TOC, including a station over a live rail line?

  • Did the 2022 agreement include a bond, a guarantee or step-in rights, and was anything registered on title at 327 Royal York or 39 Newcastle?

  • What will the Mimico GO bridge cost, and who pays for a station that was supposed to be free?

  • Metrolinx’s own design standard calls tunnels more accessible. Which future TOC is the Mimico GO bridge being designed for?

  • On September 10 the CEO told the Board early works would start within weeks. What exactly is starting, and when does it finish?

  • And the question we will keep asking: when will Mimico GO have barrier-free access to the platforms?

What you can do in 30 seconds – Two clicks

The button below opens an email to the Ministers of Transportation and Infrastructure, copied to us, MPP Fairclough, Councillor Morley, Metrolinx’s Toronto West Community Engagement team, and the Metrolinx CEO.

Edit as you see fit, add your name, postal code, and send.

📨 Email the Ministers →

If your phone or browser does not open the email, the addresses are: minister.mto@ontario.ca, prabmeet.sarkaria@pc.ola.org, david.piccini@pc.ola.org; cc info@mimicoresidents.ca, lfairclough.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, councillor_morley@toronto.ca, TorontoWest@metrolinx.com, ceo@metrolinx.com

Subject: Mimico GO and Park Lawn GO: when?

Hello,
I live in South Etobicoke and I have two questions:
1. When will Mimico GO have barrier-free access to its platforms?
2. Does the Province plan to build Park Lawn GO, and when?
I would appreciate a written answer.
Thank you,
[Your name]
[Your postal code]

Thanks for reading, Mimico!

Researched and written by volunteering neighbours after our kids go to bed and between work meetings. Spot an error? Tell us at info@mimicoresidents.ca

Sources

Wherever possible we link to the original document. A few documents were sent to us or shown at meetings and are not published anywhere else; those are marked copy published by the MRA.

2012–2018: the promises

The TOC handoff

Mimico GO, 2022–2026

Park Lawn GO, density and service

Money and Queen’s Park

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