Demanding Transparency and Value for Money: Requesting an Audit on the $150 Million West Toronto Railpath Extension - by Councillor Brad Bradford, seconded by Councillor Jon Burnside

Understandably, the significant price tag captured the attention of Torontonians, the media, and many members of Council. The cost of the extension has raised questions about the City's responsibilities, priorities, and evaluation of the use of valuable taxpayer dollars - and those questions merit answers. At $150 million, the two kilometre trail would cost double what it's costing to speed up the Gardiner Expressway rebuild by a year. With the same funding, two brand new community centres could be delivered for our communities. In fact, the cost has increased six-fold since 2016, when the extension project was budgeted at $23 million. The City has not made publicly available a detailed breakdown of the $150 million cost estimate, and questions about the due diligence process have gone unanswered. As a demonstration of transparency, this motion requests the City of Toronto's Auditor General to include a value for money assessment of the West Toronto Railpath Extension in the 2025 Work Plan.

how this project was identified and prioritized for capital funding and requests for intergovernmental funding support; c. factors that led to the cost estimate increasing by at least $74 million over the previous projection; d. details of the impact of Metrolinx administrative costs on the increased estimate; and e. an assessment of the City's process for evaluating the budget increase and recommendations for improvement.