Phil Verster no longer CEO of Metrolinx

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. 

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. 

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

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.