Toronto residents fear province will expropriate homes to build tunnel
Posted October 28, 2010 5:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne is trying to reassure Toronto residents who fear their homes will be expropriated to build a railway tunnel to Pearson International Airport.
Residents received a letter from Metrolinx saying their homes will need to be acquired for the project.
But Wynne said homeowners will have options.
She said the letter confused many families and members of the agency will contact them to clear things up.
Wynne said people don’t want surprises, and she’ll take full responsibility for making sure that they know what their options are.
The “notifications” that were sent to homeowners “are not expropriations,” said Stephen Lipkus, executive director of the project for Metrolinx.
“They were notices that were provided in order to really make the residents who were most adjacent to the corridor aware of the fact that they’ll be impacted by the construction, and during the construction period, they may have that option to sell their properties,” he said
The affected homes are very close to the construction zone _ as close as one metre, he added.
Lipkus said homeowners will be able to stay if they want, but it will require the agency to revise its construction plan.
A wall to be built near the rail line will have to go several meters into the ground, which could damage the homes that sit nearby, he said. There will also be a lot of noise and vibration from machinery used during construction.
Lipkus acknowledged the letter “may have been a little stark” and didn’t outline the different options available to homeowners. But the regional transportation agency had to make it clear what those residents are facing.
The affected homes are between King and Church streets, near Weston Road south of Highway 401.
The homes are near the proposed construction zone of a tunnel that would be part of a GO Transit line connecting Union Station in the city’s downtown core and the airport. Construction is slated to begin in January.
Wynne said the rail link to the airport is expected to be completed in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.
