TORONTO — Phil Verster, CEO of Ontario provincial transportation agency Metrolinx since 2017, has resigned, the provincial government announced this week.
The CBC reports that a memo to employees said Verster is departing for a rail industry job outside of Canada. He will depart as soon as Dec. 16. Michael Lindsay, currently head of Infrastructure Ontario, will become interim president and CEO.
“I want to thank Phil for his many years of service to Ontario,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a press release. “Phil led and supported explosive growth in transit construction, including the largest expansion of public transit in North America. The transportation landscape in Ontario will be permanently better because of his contributions.”
Lindsay’s “top priority,” Ford said, will be to open the Eglinton Crosstown, a 25-station, 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) light rail line, “as soon as it is safe to do so.” Metrolinx is building the project, but the Toronto Transit Commission will operate the line, and the chair of the TTC said Wednesday, Dec. 4, that June 1 is the earliest possible date operations will begin.
The light rail line, originally projected to cost Ca$9.1 billion and open in 2020, had seen the cost rise to at least Ca$12.8 billion by 2022, according to documents obtained by the CBC.
The issues with Crosstown construction had led critics to call for Verster’s replacement, and members of two opposition political parties hailed his departure, but Ford told reporters that he remains one of Verster’s “biggest supporters,” and that the Eglinton project was just a small portion of what he had worked on.
