Hi Neighbours! We can’t imagine that this is what Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay was promising four weeks ago when he said “… in the next couple of weeks you’re going to see big things happening …“ but something did indeed happen!
Metrolinx awards $517,745 contract to monitor Mimico’s hole
In May we flagged that Metrolinx had gone to tender for geotechnical monitoring at 327 Royal York. The retaining walls in the abandoned excavation are degrading, and Metrolinx wanted to be able to predict “sudden movements/failures which is paramount in protecting the public safety and Metrolinx assets.”
That contract has now been awarded: $517,745 to GEI Consultants of Guelph, running from September 2026 to September 2029.
And this is not the first bill. Metrolinx hired WSP for a monitoring program at the site in 2024.
💰Will Metrolinx recover its monitoring costs from the receiver or the lender? If not, are Ontario taxpayers carrying a risk owned by private investors?
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 multiple times: for designing the accessibility tunnel/bridge all over again and for monitoring the hole.
Half a million dollars to watch a hole. Meanwhile, residents in wheelchairs or pushing strollers still can’t get to the platforms at Mimico GO. It’s the last station in Ontario that isn’t compliant with AODA and has no accessibility work under construction.
The MRA has been asking for accessibility at Mimico GO for ten years. If anyone knows what’s going on here, it should be Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay. He has spent a decade working on public-private partnerships (P3s), and in the same meeting where he promised big things in a couple weeks, he called Mimico his home station. Four weeks later, nothing at the station. The “big things” could start with publishing the schedule for Mimico GO Accessibility.
Upcoming Events
5th Annual Mimico Fall Fest
This Saturday (OCT 10) come say hi at the MRA tent, 11-4, free activities for the kids!
Fall Clean Up with Friends of Humber Bay Park
Sunday October 11, 10AM meet in the big Humber Bay Park Parking lot
Mimico Lakeshore Holiday Market
Hosted by the South Etobicoke Community Land Trust
Sunday, November 29, 1:30 – 4:30 PM, Mimico Centennial Library
See you later, Mimico!