More than a year after the Hurontario LRT was scheduled to be completed in Mississauga, Ont., workers haven’t finished laying rails, building platforms or tearing up intersections for the major new transit line.

Construction on the 18-kilometre, 19-stop light rail route between Port Credit and Steeles Avenue began in 2020 and was originally supposed to be completed in 2024.

But the Hurontario LRT missed its completion date, with both Metrolinx and the Ford government no longer providing a target opening timeline.

“Construction of the Hazel McCallion LRT is well underway, with significant progress across track work, stations, power systems, and vehicles,” a spokesperson for Ontario’s minister of transportation told Global News.

“It will deliver faster, more reliable transit along one of Canada’s fastest-growing corridors, and our focus is on completing the line and advancing extensions.”

Metrolinx said it had made major progress on intersections and work on some platform bases, but the majority of the track hasn’t been laid yet.

Across the whole guideway for the 18-kilometre transit line, just 45 per cent of the track has actually been laid, according to the provincial transit agency. Nineteen of the route’s 55 intersections also still need to have rail work finished.

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“Major progress has been made across critical-path activities for track installation and utility works. The new road alignment and QEW ‘push box’ underpass opened to northbound traffic in late December,” Metrolinx said in a statement.

“To date, 11 stops have their platform bases finished … six stops now have the canopy installed, including at Eglinton Ave, Bristol, Matheson Blvd, Brittania Rd, Courtneypark Dr and Derry Rd.”

They said some — but not all — of the light-rail vehicles that will run on the route have been tested.

The delays to completing the line come as the consortium building it struggles through legal spats with the construction companies it has hired to do the work.

Mobilinx Hurontario was awarded a $4.6-billion contract in 2019 to design, build, finance and operate the line for 30 years.

Mobilinx has faced legal challenges in both Toronto and Brampton over the alleged failure to return equipment, pay rental fees and square up a $2.7-million bill with another subcontractor.

Last year, S&P Global lowered the credit rating for Mobilinx to triple-B “due to persistent schedule challenges.”

Among the issues cited in the credit rating report was the lack of progress on track work.

“The senior lenders’ technical advisor has highlighted that there remains a significant portion of the alignment that has not yet progressed to trackwork and guideway construction given all the ongoing issues,” S&P Global wrote.

Without an opening date in sight, the government is still in the planning and design process for two extensions to the unfinished line.

At the beginning of 2024, Ontario’s transportation minister ordered Metrolinx to prepare an urgent business case for expanding the route north into Brampton and west into Mississauga’s downtown.

The results — a tunnelled extension in Brampton and reinstating a previously scrapped Mississauga loop — were announced before the 2025 snap election. No significant updates have been offered since.

“Planning and design work for the extensions in Brampton and Mississauga are now underway,” Metrolinx wrote in a statement.

“There will be various public engagement opportunities relating to the Transit and Rail Project Assessment Process for these extensions which will be shared as dates are confirmed.”

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Post-secondary students in Ontario say the government’s decision to reduce financial assistance grants while lifting a long-standing tuition fee freeze will leave students who are already struggling financially with more debt.

The government said last week that it will decrease the proportion of grants offered through the Ontario Student Assistance Program from about 85 per cent of funding to a maximum of 25 per cent in the fall, making the rest student loans.

The government is also lifting a seven-year tuition fee freeze to allow colleges and universities to raise fees by up to two per cent per year for the next three years.

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Alex Stratas of the student union at the University of Ottawa says the changes in OSAP structure are devastating for students who rely on the program’s grants to pay for food, housing and tuition.

Stratas, a fourth-year political science and communications student, says she and many others couldn’t afford school without those grants because they don’t have enough financial support from family, and the move sends a message that the government doesn’t care to make students’ lives more affordable.

Husam Morra, the president of University of Windsor Students’ Alliance, says students are already facing an affordability crisis and the tuition fee and financial assistance program changes will make education less accessible.

Morra, a fourth-year computer science student, says the changes will impact students even after graduation as they will have to pay back larger loans.

The changes announced by the government came with an additional $6.4 billion for the post-secondary sector over four years, following a funding formula review and a strong push from cash-strapped colleges and universities.

Ontario universities and colleges have long faced low levels of government funding, stagnant tuition levels since 2019 and sharply reduced numbers of international students, who are charged far higher tuition fees than domestic students.

Colleges in particular increasingly turned to international student tuition revenue to stabilize finances after the government cut tuition fees by 10 per cent and froze them at that level seven years ago.

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The head of Metrolinx is acknowledging the provincial transit agency has spent too much time embroiled in legal battles with its contractors, pledging a new approach after finally finishing the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The light rail route carried its first passengers on Feb. 8, roughly six years after it was originally scheduled to open, bringing to a conclusion a messy period of Metrolinx’s history marked by delays, cost overruns and legal skirmishes.

The consortium building the Crosstown, Crosslinx Transit Solutions, took the government to court over delays during the COVID-19 pandemic and again over how the TTC had involved itself in testing for the line.

The group behind the Finch West LRT also took Metrolinx to court over how the TTC was involved in testing the line. Meanwhile, the consortium currently working on the Hurontario LRT found itself involved in legal battles with its subcontractors.

On Thursday, Metrolinx CEO Michael Lindsay said one of the key lessons from the Eglinton Crosstown LRT was to work more collaboratively with the construction firms — and only head to court as a last resort.

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“It’s part of the reason we have a more progressive form of contracting now, where we’re sitting investing with the private sector partner in design, identifying constructability issues,” he told reporters. “That’s probably the most important thing to avoid downstream claims.”

Lindsay replaced former Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster last year, moving from another Crown corporation, Infrastructure Ontario.

“We have to always remember that our primary objective is to bring these transit lines into being as opposed to sitting on our rights, insisting on a legal strategy,” he added.

“That’s the thing that we are trying to do as we show up in these projects. And to the credit of our private partners, I think they’re trying to do the same.”

The lessons will be tested in real time for Lindsay, with several major transit projects still in the ground.

The Scarborough Subway Extension is currently halfway through tunnelling, while a western extension to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is also being built. Stations are being hollowed out underground for the Ontario Line, and work is also taking place to extend the Yonge Street subway into Markham.

Lindsay insisted that avoiding legal claims would not result in the government or Metrolinx rolling over to the demands of builders, prompting cost overruns.

“We’re never being disrespectful of taxpayer money,” he said. “There’s a balance here that needs to be struck between insisting upon the performance that we have contracted for and dealing with unknown issues when they arise.”

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is backing down from his threat to remove Crown Royal from the shelves of the LCBO after the government said it reached a $23-million agreement with the company that includes new investment but won’t replace the jobs lost.

Months after Ford poured out a bottle of Crown Royal in protest of the company’s decision to shut down a bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ont., impacting roughly 200 jobs, the government said the two sides came to an agreement to avoid the upcoming escalation.

Ford said the $23 million, including everything from ingredient purchases to local economic development investments and advertising, is made up of new investments that “Ontario would not otherwise have seen” if it had not threatened the prohibition.

“By standing firm in our plan to protect Ontario workers, we’ve secured nearly $23 million in investments,” Ford said in a statement. “These investments will help keep Ontario workers on the job, strengthen provincial supply chains and support the local community in Amherstburg and the surrounding area.”

The agreement, however, made no mention of the workers at the Amherstburg facility who are set to leave the facility when it shuts its doors at the end of February. While Ford had expressed hope that Diageo would replace the positions there, neither the government nor the company offered employment-related details.

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Through the fall months, Ford’s threat against Diageo intensified. At one point, he suggested he would ban other products made by the international drinks company, like Smirnoff vodka.

But pressure from across Canada began to mount at the end of the year, as political leaders in Quebec and Manitoba worried about what a ban on Crown Royal would do to the Diageo operations still employing people in their provinces.

Quebec’s finance minister said Ford’s plan to ban the whisky was misguided, while Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew mounted a campaign to get Ontario to back down. He visited a Crown Royal facility in his province and posted a video to social media, encouraging Ford to reconsider.

Ontario’s tone gradually softened and Ford began referencing an “olive branch” he said he was offering to Diageo. He moved from talking exclusively about the plant that was set to close to suggesting the jobs could be replaced in other ways.

“If Diageo comes and says, I’m going to replace these 200 workers by manufacturing bottles, doing their cartons, doing other things, more advertising, so on, so forth, and they can show me on paper. Then, we’ll sit down, and I’ll be open,” he said in January. “I’m pretty easygoing.”

The agreement the government eventually reached with Diageo will see various spending commitments across the province. The plan includes money for a spirit maker and read-to-drink beverage makers.

Just over 20 per cent of the commitment is for “Ontario-based marketing and promotion.”

A spokesperson for Diageo would not confirm what its advertising budget was in Ontario before the agreement, but thanked the government for backing down on its proposed ban.

“We thank Premier Ford and his team for their exceptional leadership and collaboration in reaching this resolution,” they wrote in a statement.

“Diageo is pleased that Crown Royal, an iconic Canadian Whisky, will remain on the shelves of the LCBO, and we remain committed to Ontario through our significant investment in the province.”

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Ontario’s financial watchdog says the province is not currently on a path to balance as spending ticks up and revenue from taxation begins to fall in the face of a cost-of-living crisis.

The Financial Accountability Officer of Ontario found that the provincial government’s budget deficit will increase to $11.1 billion in the 2025-26 year, an increase from the previous year.

The annual deficit will improve to $11.18 billion in the 2026-27 year and slowly improve. While the picture will get better, the FAO found there will still be a deficit of $6.3 billion for the 2029-30 year.

Part of the issue, the watchdog suggests, is that the province’s revenue will fall far below previous years.

The average increase in revenue over the past five years has been 7.6 per cent, according to the FAO. Over the next half-decade, that will drop to an average increase of 2.6 per cent.

“The slowdown in revenue growth reflects the FAO’s expected moderation in economic activity compared to the previous five years,” the report read.

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“Revenue growth over the outlook is also constrained by declines in interest and investment income and international student tuition revenue in the colleges sector.”

2:25
Ontario deficit to explode next year, budget watchdog projects

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy released figures Tuesday projecting the 2025-26 deficit will be $13.4 billion, higher than the FAO’s suggestion.

He refused to “speculate” on the figures in the upcoming budget when asked if he was still confident Ontario was on a path to balance.

“Ontario continues to navigate a period of global economic and geopolitical uncertainty,” he told reporters. “And in spite of this uncertainty, Ontario’s economy proved to be resilient and continued to grow in 2025.”

The FAO’s report projects employment will increase, with job losses in tariff-hit industries offset by other gains.

“Annual employment growth is projected to slow to 0.3 per cent in 2026 and then improve to 0.9 per cent in 2027 as Ontario’s labour market adjusts to a new global trade environment,” the report said.

“The annual unemployment rate is projected to improve to 7.6 per cent in 2026 and continue to trend down over the remainder of the outlook.”

Ontario NDP MPP Jessica Bell said the government couldn’t hide from the overall unemployment numbers.

“No amount of spin from Minister Bethlenfalvy can hide these staggering unemployment numbers and a record-high provincial debt,” she said in a statement.

“We need a plan that brings significant investments into infrastructure and public services — from schools to hospitals — to strengthen Ontario’s economy and create good jobs.”

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Critics are questioning the Ford government’s decision to pour more public money into an advertising blitz after the province debuted its latest commercial during the Super Bowl.

The new one-minute Protect Ontario ad for the provincial government was first aired on Canadian television Sunday night as part of a push to promote the government’s vision.

“We build, that’s what we do in Ontario,” the voiceover begins. “As Canada stares down economic uncertainty, we’re ready with a plan to protect Ontario. Today and for generations.”

The commercial — produced by an Ontario-based animator — moves through images of home, highway and pipeline construction, featuring images of ships, cars and remote parts of Ontario.

“The government’s latest advertising campaign … highlights some of the ways we are building a more competitive, resilient, and self-reliant economy,” the premier’s office said.

Critics, however, argue the government is wasting public money on a campaign designed to boost its poll ratings rather than educate the public.

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“I don’t even want to think about how much this ad will cost taxpayers. But we do know it will add to this government’s historic, unprecedented spending on self-promotional advertising — all on the public dime,” Ontario Liberal MPP Stephanie Bowman said in a statement.

“What does this ad do to help Ontario? Why is this government focused on spending millions of dollars on self-promotion when they could be spending millions to help get young people jobs, to help break up criminal networks, and to help connect people to a family doctor?”

Bowman suggested the commercial’s claims were misleading. “We’re not building,” she said, pointing to the fact that Ontario had the worst housing construction rate in the country last year.

The Ontario NDP took a similarly dim view of the advertising blitz.

“These ads paint a pretty misleading picture about life in Doug Ford’s Ontario,” the party wrote in a statement. “They had to rely on special effects because the reality is that this government isn’t building any homes, they’re not fixing our roads, and they’re not creating or protecting good jobs.”

The premier’s office declined to tell Global News how much the commercial would cost, saying only the figures would eventually be released through public accounts data.

In recent years, the Progressive Conservatives have steadily ramped up the amount of public money being spent on government advertising. It reached a record of $111.9 million in the run-up to last year’s snap election.

The auditor general has complained that many of the campaigns the government is pushing don’t appear to have a purpose — beyond improving perceptions of the Progressive Conservative administration.

One previous campaign, “It’s Happening Here,” was flagged by the auditor as being run without a clear purpose beyond improving the public’s view of the government.

“The advertisements were aimed at a general audience,” Auditor General Shelley Spence wrote in her report for 2025.

“They did not include information about services and programs, but rather appeared designed to improve Ontarians’ impression of the current state of Ontario, the subtext of which promotes the governing party.”

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More than 5,000 days after construction began in Toronto, the Crosstown LRT will finally begin carrying passengers along Eglinton Avenue.

Around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the first train will start its journey westward from Kennedy Station in Scarborough, past connections to the Yonge/University subway line, to terminate at Mount Dennis Station in the west.

The train will leave the station without pomp or ceremony as part of a phased opening to the line, Toronto’s transit agency is trying to play down as a soft launch, managing expectations for the six-year delayed project.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT was first pitched by former mayor David Miller as part of his Transit City vision in 2007 and, after being briefly dashed by his successor, Rob Ford, began construction in November 2011.

Construction on the line was led by provincial transit agency Metrolinx in a public-private partnership with a construction consortium. The two parties presided over a myriad of delays, legal cases and cost overruns.

By 2023, Metrolinx had given up on providing the public with an opening date, promising only that the public would get three months’ notice before the line opened. Ultimately, that didn’t happen.

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Metrolinx instead announced in December 2025 that it finally believed the project was complete and accepted it from the construction consortium, handing it to the TTC, which will run its timetables and operations.

Behind the scenes, the provincial transit agency aggressively campaigned to open the Crosstown before the end of 2025, but a more restrained approach from the TTC won out.

Its CEO privately pushed to open the line on Feb. 8, during a December meeting, but publicly refused to confirm the date. CEO Mandeep Lali finally announced the same opening date at a meeting on Tuesday, after Premier Doug Ford had told reporters that was when he expected the line to open.

Until the eleventh hour, Lali would not confirm Sunday’s opening date, complaining that unexplained activations of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT’s emergency brakes left him concerned the system was not ready.

Sometime in the week leading up to the opening, he said he was given a satisfactory explanation for the emergency brake incidents, and said he was ready to open the line.

Still, the TTC is framing the opening almost as a pilot. The agency said trains will initiate and terminate service earlier than intended and travel at slower speeds during a phased opening.

The line will operate from roughly 5:30 a.m. on weekdays and 7:30 a.m. on weekends. It will close at 11 p.m. daily.

“As part of the phased opening of Line 5, the TTC is advising customers that there will be no grand opening ceremony, formal event, or commemorative merchandise on Sunday at any location,” the transit agency wrote in a statement.

Despite the low-key nature of the launch, the TTC admitted it expected crowds to ride the line all day Sunday.

Premier Ford chided journalists for being “negative” about the long-delayed Crosstown ahead of its launch on Friday and urged Torontonians to celebrate the fact it has finally opened.

“You’re beating a dead horse here; we’ve been going through this for years, the same old questions,” he said. “Let’s celebrate a new line.”

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Ontario’s solicitor general — the minister responsible for policing in the province — is declining to speak about the arrest of multiple officers during an organized crime investigation that is rocking law enforcement in and around Toronto.

A York Regional Police investigation into organized crime led to the arrest of seven Toronto police officers and has now spread to neighbouring Peel Regional Police, where three officers have been suspended.

Claims against the Toronto cops related to alleged corruption, leaking information to an organized crime group and bribery. The charges have not been proven in court.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Friday if the officers are guilty, they “deserve to be thrown in jail.” Premier Doug Ford said “bad actors” would be “held accountable.”

The man responsible for Ontario’s policing, however, has declined to comment on the scandal.

Global News approached Solicitor General Michael Kerzner’s office for a statement on Thursday and an interview on Friday. On both occasions, his staff declined, offering no comment on the police scandal.

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“Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate this interview. The Premier was asked a number of questions about the matter this morning, and yesterday. Those comments stand as response from our government,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement.

They said questions should be directed to local police.

2:07
Ford, Chow weigh in on shocking Toronto police corruption investigation

As solicitor general, Kerzner is responsible for public security, law enforcement and policing in Ontario. His ministry enacted a major overhaul of police rules last year, including allowing for some officers to be suspended without pay.

Ontario Liberal MPP Karen McCrimmon said that Kerzner should come out and take questions on the arrests, addressing the organized crime investigation to reinforce public confidence.

“This is serious, this cuts right to the heart of the relationships between the people and the police,” she said.

“It’s his job to address these kinds of serious issues; otherwise, why bother having it? I think we need full transparency, full acouuntability and we need to start rebuilding that trust.”

McCrimmon is calling for a judicial inquiry to independently establish how seven Toronto police officers were allegedly corrupted.

Ford, however, suggested he didn’t believe there was a broader problem to investigate.

“I love our police,” he told reporters. “Do we have a few bad actors? Yeah, they’re bad actors, they’re going to be held accountable, sure as I’m standing here. It’s an ongoing police investigation.”

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When soil testing machines were first rolled out on Eglinton Avenue around 2008 to prepare for a potential light rail line, local business owner Anita Dimitrijevic found them “pretty scary.”

But they were only the start. Work on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT would continue until early this year, spanning political parties, governments, construction firms and local mayors.

For more than 15 years, the key east-west road entered a funk, where local businesses closed, traffic snarled and the transit project at the centre of it struggled from one controversy to another.

Dimitrijevic’s business, Di Moda European Lingerie, is one of many along the route now ready to emerge blinking from the construction chaos when the Eglinton Crosstown LRT officially launches on Sunday.

They are ready for the prosperity the new transit line promised.

“Access to the area was more difficult, parking was limited. Many customers assumed that the whole street was closed and as a small boutique, we really rely on foot traffic,” Dimitrijevic told Global News.

“Seeing the LRT finally open feels like a reward, and we would like to enjoy that reward. We are expecting that our community will change. We’re expecting more people, we’re expecting more movement, more accessibility, more connections.”

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The idea of a major transit line on Eglinton Avenue predates even Dimitrijevic’s business, which has been in the area for 21 years. But it was former Toronto mayor David Miller’s Transit City vision in 2007 that breathed life into the plan.

Miller secured provincial funding for his plan to build light rail along Eglinton Avenue from the provincial government.

“It was our proposal, for the most part our design — our being the City of Toronto and the TTC — and we secured the funding,” Miller told Global News.

Then, his successor at city hall, Rob Ford, came to power in 2010 and scrapped the plan. Instead, he proposed an underground version of the route, kicking off years of debate and chaos.

Despite the wrangling at city hall, the route ended up being agreed upon in the image Miller had imagined, and it began to move forward. The TTC, however, was forced to release control of the plan, which would be led by the newly-created provincial transit agency Metrolinx.

Miller said taking control away from Toronto’s transit agency, which is accountable to residents, was a mistake. It made the Eglinton Crosstown LRT an Ontario-wide political hot potato.

“I’m very sad that provincial interference meant a decade delay and had some other pretty negative consequences, including massive cost overruns,” he said. “I’m angry about that, frankly. But it’s pretty exciting to have been there at the inception.”

The line was beset by lawsuits and delays, missing its target opening date. By 2023, it was three years delayed and Metrolinx had stopped even trying to predict when it might open to the public.

That dynamic continued until December 2025, when the provincial transit agency finally accepted the Eglinton Crosstown LRT as complete and handed it to the TTC. The TTC then took its time assessing the line itself, eventually confirming it would open on Sunday, Feb. 8.

Miller said, despite the long and winding road, it would be a momentous day for Toronto.

“It’s massively frustrating how long it’s taken. And I think people should be justifiably angry,” he said.

“But people should also be really pleased that we finally have rapid transit across an incredibly important avenue in Toronto. That connects so many neighbourhoods, rich and low-income people, into the fabric of the life of the city. It’s pretty exciting.”

That excitement is beginning to bubble along Eglinton Avenue, where the potential of easy access is being relished by businesses.

“It’s only been 15 years, it’s a very exciting day. And we’re excited that this project is moving forward,” Maureen Sirois of Vicky’s Jewellery, and president of the Eglinton Way BIA, told Global News.

“Now we’re optimistic. Our street’s looking great, it’s going to look greater, and people are going to be able to access all these neighbourhoods on Eglinton.”

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