TOareaFan
Superstar
Well, that's easy. Our Pan Am bid team was announced in September 2008, and in November the province announced the UPX as part of their big move plan and that the EA process for the UPX would be cut from 3 years to 6 months. Conveniently that made the EA get the green light right before selecting the Pan Am bid winner. Also, the head of our bid committee was former Liberal Premiere David Peterson, and the current Premiere was Liberal McGuinty, so it's not hard to imagine them working in concert for the bits and pieces of the Big move that would help our bid. And it's not that the Pan Am visitors care more about this line - technically, it was never about them - it was about impressing the selection committee and winning the bid.
It really is not hard to imagine anything...really
Of note, since the RFP was submitted in 2001, that means Mike Harris was behind it. That man's reputation on transit just keeps getting better. He killed the Eglinton subway and gave the green light to the Sheppard subway and started the UPX mess.
Of note the RFP was issued by Transport Canada (a federal agency) and the then Liberal government led by Jean Chretien was the driving force....not sure there was any provincial money or planning that went into it at all (until ML took it over in 2008).
For some historical perspective, here is a link to the 2003 press release from Transport Minister David Collenette announcing who the successful respondent to the 2001 RFP was.
http://www.westoncommunitycoalition.ca/Nov 2003 Selection of SNC and Backgrounder.pdf
oops....on further reading if you read paragraph 8 backwards it clearly says "I am the walrus and this is a Pan Am Games project"