Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster resigns after 7 years on the job

Phil Verster is out as CEO and president of Metrolinx, the province says. 

The province announced Verster’s resignation Monday.

A memo sent to Metrolinx employees says Verster will be leaving the organization as soon as Dec. 16 to start a new role in the rail industry outside of Canada. 

The Ontario government has named Michael Lindsay, the head of Infrastructure Ontario, as the interim president and CEO of the transit service, starting in December. 

Verster took over the role in 2017. He had his contract renewed for another three-year term last year. 

Since then, he’s faced criticism over the repeated delays to rapid transit projects, including the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit line, which is years behind schedule.

In a statement, Premier Doug Ford said Lindsay’s top priority will be opening Eglinton Crosstown “as soon as it is safe to do so.” 

Ford later told reporters Monday he was one of Verster’s “biggest supporters.” 

“What he has done in the last five and a half years is nothing less than a miracle,” he said. 

Work on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT began in 2011 with an estimated price tag of $9.1 billion to build and maintain the 19-kilometre line. In 2022, documents obtained by CBC Toronto showed the project costs had jumped to at least $12.8 billion.

It was supposed to open in 2020, but a series of technical problems have repeatedly delayed the line’s opening. 

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Verster’s departure was “a long time coming.”

“We’ve been calling on the government to either force him to resign or fire him for a long time now,” she said. 

However, Stiles said she didn’t think a change in leadership is enough to address the party’s concerns over delays to the Eglinton Crosstown line and other rapid transit projects. 

“The buck doesn’t stop with one person. This is on Doug Ford and his Conservative government.”

Aislinn Clancy, deputy leader of the Ontario Green Party, said Verster’s departure was good news but that more government oversight of Metrolinx is needed. 

Eglinton-Lawrence Coun. Mike Colle called for an apology from Ford over the delays on Monday, saying Verster’s resignation “marks the end of a shameful chapter.” 

“This never-ending boondoggle has wrought havoc on residential communities and small businesses, many of which never recovered and went out of business.”

Ford said work on the Eglinton Crosstown line was “only a fraction” of the work the outgoing CEO was involved in.