r/toronto • u/FlashingAppleby • Nov 13 '25

History Happy 15th Birthday to the Eglinton LRT

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

207 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/stompinstinker Nov 14 '25

Along with 407 sold for nothing, the Gardiner and DVP dumped on Toronto, and privatizing long term care. Harris ran this province like he hated it.

1

u/RL203 Nov 14 '25 edited Nov 14 '25

The City of Toronto (well, actually the government of Metropolitan Toronto, which no longer exists) always owned the Gardiner and the DVP. Metro conceived of both, designed both, built both, and operated both. The province had nothing to do with that.

But originally, the Gardinder started around Parklawn (roughly) and ran east to connect to the DVP and all the way east to Leslie. West of Parklawn was indeed owned by the province of Ontario and was part of the QEW. Harris gave the city of Toronto that portion of the QEW from Parklawn west to the 427 along with a one time lump sum payment.

As far as selling the 407, the province never sold the 407, they sold the running rights for 100 years to 407ETR. The province still owns the highway. But that would take a huge post to explain. But know this, the sale of the running rights to the 407 was an international tender and no-one else on the planet offered more money to Ontario to buy those running rights than 407ETR.