Mayor’s ‘priority’ Dundas TTC station renaming comes with hidden costs

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The renaming of Dundas station could come at a $400,000 cost to City Hall – if not more – and has generated friction at the TTC, the Toronto Sun has learned.

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That renaming was decided upon at a May meeting of the TTC board. What’s now Dundas will become TMU station as part of a sweeping partnership with nearby Toronto Metropolitan University.

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The specifics of that deal, which will provide the school’s expertise to the transit operator, are secret. A freedom-of-information request by the Sun yielded hundreds of emails about the renaming, but large portions of documents related to TMU and the cost of the new name have been blacked out.

What’s not hidden in the emails is the discomfort that Josh Colle, the TTC’s chief strategy and customer experience officer, had with the “very contentious issue” – and with the price of the change.

$400,000 for map upgrades

Chris Ronson, of City Hall’s transportation services division, told the TTC in an April email that changing the name of Dundas station would necessitate $400,000 worth of map updates.

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“This is a significant one-time cost that (transportation services) and Bike Share have not budgeted for,” Ronson wrote.

“The December 2023 council decision is clear that there is to be no net impact on the (City of Toronto’s) budget as a result of the station name changes.” He wrote that those costs “need to be accounted for” in the report that would accompany the TTC board’s decision.

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Colle seemed at first incredulous at the news, writing to strategic adviser Hayley Waldman: “Oh come on.” By the next evening, he had changed his tone.

“We need to address this,” he said in an email to Waldman. “I’m not sure why many of these things can’t just be replaced when they are naturally scheduled.”

Roughly a week later, Waldman relayed an electrical engineer’s “high-level estimate” of the time to change all names “on our electrical drawings” from Dundas to TMU station.

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As with many dollar figures in the emails, the amount is redacted, but Waldman is told it is being done with internal labour.

After seeing the amount, Colle replied: “Brutal, but thank you.”

The documents suggest the renaming could cost as much as $2.2 million, which was given as an estimate for renaming both Dundas and Dundas West stations, or as little as about $780,000, as cited in a cost breakdown from November 2024. The TTC board has said some elements of the renaming could be snuck in at a far lower cost with other transit upgrades – and a few emails echo that.

Details of TMU deal confidential

In an emailed statement, TTC spokesman Stuart Green said most of the details of the TMU deal are confidential, and would not confirm a total for the renaming. Green did say the university is “fully covering, with no additional funds required from the TTC,” the cost of the Dundas station name change.

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It may be that the final price was brought down by cutting corners.

In March, Waldman wrote to Colle with cost breakdowns for the Dundas job.

“Please note that the cost for wall signage included in the breakdown is for temporary signage only, not new sandblasted tile. That will eventually be an additional cost that we don’t yet have,” Waldman wrote.

Colle’s emails point to the renaming being a pet project for Mayor Olivia Chow and TTC Chair Jamaal Myers. (Colle’s father is Councillor Mike Colle, who, as a close ally of the mayor, sits on City Hall’s powerful executive committee.)

“While confirming estimated costs for the name change, additional significant costs and complexities were identified that we are now working through,” Josh Colle wrote to his team a few days after he got word of the $400,000 map updates.

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“This initiative is a priority for the mayor and chair and my hope is that we can use these extra two weeks to make certain we’ve captured all costs related to a potential renaming and be ready for the May board.”

It’s unclear which “costs and complexities” Colle is referring to, but his email makes explicit mention of the $400,000 to update maps.

It appears the “priority” initiative Colle is writing about is not the TMU deal, which is not mentioned, but the rebrand. The phrase “name change” appears three times in Colle’s email, including in the subject.

Chow, Myers, ‘on a path’

The emails suggest there was a push around November 2024 to get Dundas renamed.

“This has been a very contentious issue for our board members and city council,” Colle wrote to TTC interim CEO Greg Percy on Nov. 1 of that year, “but it seems like the mayor and chair are finally aligned on a path forward that would see Dundas renamed after TMU in exchange for them covering the costs and a partnership that would see some other benefits accrue to the TTC.

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“Our new (renaming) policy would then only apply to Dundas West and that renaming process would proceed once approved by board.”

The only issue, Colle said: The board never told the TTC to do any of that.

“Our direction does not include the renaming of Dundas to TMU, so if following our board direction, our report will leave the mayor, local councillor and others unhappy. It also has the potential to reopen the entire debate at our board and citywide,” he wrote.

“My team is drafting a second version of our board report that sees us accepting council’s request, despite that direction not coming from the board. That will leave us open to very fair questions and criticism from some.”

On Nov. 14, Colle wrote in an email: “As you know, this is the direction the chair wanted to go.” The day before, Colle wrote that the report was being drafted to honour “requests of the mayor’s office and chair.”

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It’s clear that approach didn’t sit well with him.

“Worth reinforcing,” Colle wrote later in that email, “that this direction could open us up to the following questions: Doesn’t your recommendation to rename Dundas contravene your very own new policy you’re asking us to approve? There is no board direction to rename the station as TMU – where did you receive this direction? Shouldn’t we just leave this as Dundas and save the money and divisive debate?”

Myers did not respond to a request for comment. In an emailed statement, Chow’s office said the TMU deal is part of “a compromise that involved a few civic assets, saving taxpayers millions of dollars,” compared with her predecessor John Tory’s plan to spend $12.7 million to rename Dundas St.

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Not only is TMU paying for new signs, “the dollar value of their contribution to the TTC as part of the ongoing research and data partnership is well above the hard costs for the TTC and other city departments,” the statement added.

Green did not respond to questions about the actual cost of the renaming, the use of sandblasting for signage or additional costs related to the TMU name, but said the “partnership between the TTC and TMU is an exciting one with many benefits.” He pointed to a TTC report that touted the upside of “collaborating with some of the best and the brightest minds in research and technology.”

In a brief statement, City Hall said it can’t comment on “other incident costs” but confirmed the $400,000 “preliminary” estimate.

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“The costs to update these signs are currently being reviewed and are expected to be reduced due to competitive procurement,” the statement added. “Conversations remain ongoing with the TTC on how the updates will be funded, and as they are leading the initiative to rename Dundas station, further comment on the station renaming is best directed to them.”

jholmes@postmedia.com

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