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Minister Sarkaria Advocates Thunder-Bay Built Subway Cars

The TTC is in the early days of a Request for Proposals for the supply of new subway cars. See:

The RFP was issued in December 2024 and was intended to go through several stages including:

  • Pass/Fail screening: January
  • Confidential cybersecurity meetings: March to April
  • Commercial confidential meetings: April to early July
  • Proposal submission deadline: July 22, 2025

We have just reached the point where early discussions with would-be vendors are to get underway, and actual submissions are three months off.

This means that no details of potential bids such as Canadian content, manufacturing plans or, of course, pricing are known to the TTC.

On April 23, 2025 (yesterday as I write this), Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, wrote to Mayor Chow asking:

I am writing to you about the importance of standing up for Ontario workers as a critical consideration during the procurement of the 55 new subway trains for TTC’s Line 2, which our government is supporting with a $758 million investment.

[…]

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.

Coverage of this appeared in The Star on April 24. In an unusual move for a government so enamoured of media exposure, this was not accompanied by a formal press release or media conference, but by a posting on the Minister’s LinkedIn feed.

Mayor Chow issued the following statement in reply:

Mayor Chow supports Buying Canadian whenever possible. With President Trump attacking Canada’s economy, we need to support local workers, jobs and businesses. We are working in collaboration with the provincial and federal government to deliver public transit for Torontonians and to support Canadian jobs. A Request for Proposal was issued in December. The Mayor speaks regularly with Minister Sarkaria and we will work collaboratively with the province and assess the feasibility of their request.

Past comments at both the Provincial and Federal level have suggested that this contract should automatically go to Alstom’s Thunder Bay plant, and yet the TTC issued an open RFP with all of the cost and complexity that entails. Of course, Trump’s machinations against Canada had not begun in December.

This RFP proposes not just the 55 replacement trains for the current Line 2 fleet, but trains for extensions to Scarborough and Richmond Hill, growth in demand, and eventually replacement of the current Line 1 fleet (all as options). Whoever gets this contract can well lock in decades of work supplying the Toronto subway system.

Sarkaria hints at the possibility that a sole-source contract to Alstom might require some adjustments:

The Ontario government will work with the city and the federal government to ensure the successful delivery of the trains should this decision lead to any changes in the project scope.

With a Federal election in progress, we will not know soon how much more funding might be on the table, but any extra cost would likely come out of Toronto’s allocation of the 10-year Federal funding plan already in place. It could be a stretch to get net new funding.

We have already seen the effect of cost projections on this project which was originally scoped at 62 trains, but was cut back to 55 to stay within the requested funding.

For the record, the Canadian content requirement in the RFP is 25%, and much of this contract could go offshore based on the RFP specs. If we are really going to “buy Canadian”, that number must be higher to the degree possible. (Some components, notably electronics, are not made in Canada.)

Vendors who are already involved in the RFP process will, no doubt, be upset that “the fix was in” for Alstom and resent the waste of their time. What added economic benefits might have come with an alternate vendor we will never know. Any such proposal would have to be weighed against the possible closure of Alstom’s facilities for lack of work.

I will update this article as the story develops.

7 thoughts on “Minister Sarkaria Advocates Thunder-Bay Built Subway Cars”

  1. Is it possible that the provincial or federal government could put conditions on their portion of funding that require the contract be awarded to Alstom’s TB plant?

    I assume since the federal portion is not fully set in stone, it is most likely to have strings attached that require majority-Canadian component sourcing and assembly (if funding is still given – pending new government).

    It seems reasonable to issue an open RFP process should there not already be preference for Alstom. Other manufacturers have much to offer. A positive experience with other vendors may make the TTC more open to procuring from someone either than Alstom despite the economic benefit of local procurement. I don’t believe the TTC has procured from anyone other than Bombardier/Alstom for quite some time.

    The only benefit I can see from choosing Alstom is a matching CBTC system (despite the RFP requirements, and only if Alstom and the TTC board recognizes this detail – which is not guaranteed), local procurement, experience with their previous products and maintenance processes, and potential ease of resolving issues due to their proximity. That said, the streetcar procurement showed the latter is not guaranteed.

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  2. I left a comment at the Star’s article, but the subject has left me…’flummoxed’ since.

    Already, the ‘new’ ‘Pan-Canadiana’ (of the provinces and territories eliminating tariffs and bans) is being thrown to the exhaust fan.

    Let’s be clear on this issue: It is strategic, in so many ways, and should be *played carefully*…*extremely* carefully, as the other provinces and Mexico will then judge their ‘notwithstanding’ commitments for free trade on it.

    I could go into a lot more detail, but I’m agitated by this event to be frank. Let’s see how this lies and I’ll add comment later, but as it stands, Sakaria is *way out of line*!

    This is exactly the time of ‘Canada Strong’ where efforts to source the highest quality of goods is apt and just.

    Sole Sourcing without caveats, let alone consideration to other Cdns, is an offence.

    I trust Ford will withdraw this, and this issue be examined in the light of day.

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  3. Toronto has the opportunity to affect this contract in a far more dynamic way than Sakaria proposes. Since the Feds are coughing up a third, this would be a golden opportunity (presuming Carney remains PM) for them to increase that amount to stone three birds with one kill, so to speak.

    I use Mexico for illustrative purposes, since so little capacity exists in Canada to handle the prime contract:

    Wikipedia:

    Four manufacturers have provided rolling stock for the Mexico City Metro, namely the French Alstom (MP-68, NM-73, NM-79), Canadian Bombardier (FM-95A and NM-02), Spanish CAF (NM-02, FE-07, FE-10 and NM-16 and Mexican Concarril (NM-83 and FM-86) (now Bombardier Transportation Mexico, in some train types with the help of Alstom

    Google AI:

    Yes, Mexico does build subway cars. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co has a factory in Mexico City that manufactures train cars. They have already produced 15 cars, with plans for more, utilizing local suppliers. Additionally, Railway Gazette International reported that CRRC is assembling 70% of their trainsets in China and 30% in their Mexican facility near Querétaro.

    The latter flags national security concerns for Canada, but still makes an essential point: The Feds can use this opportunity to do as they are doing with Saab and the Gripen…

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  4. Is this the same provincial government that awarded Ontario Line build-operate-maintain contract to a consortium of Japanese, French, Australian-Dutch, and Spanish companies, with rolling stock specifically provided by Hitachi Rail? And was regularly lambasting City of Toronto and TTC for not getting best value for money?

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  6. Isn’t that the same factory in Thunder Bay that produced all the new streetcars? Have we forgotten all the delays and problems associated with them? The amount of the contract is so high that an alternate bidder [could] come in and build a completely new factory to construct the subway cars. This new facility would also put the alternate bidder in a good position to build other Canadian rail cars in the future….GO replacements, the other TTC rail lines (Finch, Eglinton, Relief Line, Bloor, etc.), Hurontario light rail, OC Transpo rail, STM, EXO, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver Skytrain, even VIA.

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  7. Jarek: Is this the same provincial government that awarded Ontario Line build-operate-maintain contract to a consortium of Japanese, French, Australian-Dutch, and Spanish companies, with rolling stock specifically provided by Hitachi Rail? And was regularly lambasting City of Toronto and TTC for not getting best value for money?

    No, it’s not. Since then there have been two elections and Caroline Mulroney called the shots back then, Mr. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria calls the shots now. Mr Sarkaria is a bright young man with a bright vision for Ontario and for Canada. Today it’s Mark Carney, tomorrow could be Mr. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria; good luck to this remarkable young man.

    Steve: I suspect that it’s really Doug Ford who calls the shots no matter who the Minister is. When it suited him, he touted the idea of an international consortium to design and build his pet projects. Now he wants to be “Captain Canada” and keep the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay working. The decision is political right at the top. Sarkaria may be a good man, but he would not be able to announce something like this without Ford’s blessing.

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