Ontario transport minister not offering estimate of Toronto bike lane removal cost [Video]

Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria takes a call in a government room at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto on Thursday, June 10, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario’s transportation minister says he doesn’t believe the City of Toronto’s estimate that it will cost $48 million to remove bike lanes on three major roads in the city, but he has not provided an estimate of his own.

Prabmeet Sarkaria says the province will look at the costs, but he believes the cost of not removing them is “far greater.”

The Progressive Conservative government is fast-tracking legislation that would require municipalities to ask the province for permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a lane of vehicle traffic.

It also plans to go one step further and remove sections of Bloor Street, Yonge Street and University Avenue bike lanes and restore them as lanes for vehicle traffic.

Toronto …