The Ford government is pushing the province’s largest city to consider handing a major subway contract to an Ontario company, bypassing the competitive bidding process, amid tariff threats from the United States.
Toronto is currently in the midst of an urgent procurement process to buy 55 desperately needed new cars to run on its Bloor-Danforth subway line, an expense both the federal and provincial governments are helping to pay.
The city had been planning to open up bidding for the contract to all qualified companies, but Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria has now written to the local government asking them to change course.
“I am requesting that the City of Toronto recognize this historic opportunity and consider a sole-source procurement with Alstom, which would support Ontario workers in Thunder Bay and across our province,” Sarkaria said in a letter.
The letter is part of a broader push by the provincial government …