TORONTO — The Government of Ontario introduced legislation last week to transfer ownership of four subway projects to the provincial government, a move it says will speed up construction of the projects.
The Getting Ontario Moving Act was introduced on May 2. Minister of Transportation Jeff Yurek said in a press release that, if passed the legislation would allow the government “to get shovels in the ground and get new subways built faster.
Urbantoronto.ca reports the four projects, three subway lines and one mostly underground light rail extension, will cost an estimated $28.5 billion Canadian. The legislation would prevent the City of Toronto and its agencies from working on the projects, transferring management to the regional transportation agency Metrolinx. Talks continue on the possibility of transferring the entire subway system to the province, rather than just new projects, globalnews.ca reports.
Critics question whether the proposal will result in speedier construction. Andrea Horwath, leader of the opposition Ontario New Democratic Party, called the move by Premier Doug Ford and his Ontario Progressive Conservative Party “a hostile takeover of the [Toronto Transit Commission] subways. Freezing out the City of Toronto, and Toronto families and commuters, will have devastating consequences for generations to come.”
ROGER – Thanks for the correction. I was greatly confused. Still am greatly confused. I don’t understand why North York was upgraded from Borough to City. Per your post it’s not either one.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) built a subway extension into the City of Vaughan. The project was years late and hundreds of millions over budget. TTC is currently replacing the signal system and is both late and over budget on the project. No surprise that the Province feels justified in taking control of the building process for new lines.
CL, Toronto is no longer Metro Toronto. The boroughs and cities were amalgamated into a single municipality in the 1990s. Toronto is surrounded by the Cities of Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham and Pickering. These cities do have interlinking bus transit connections to the TTC. Metrolinx operates the GO heavy rail commuter system that joins these communities into Toronto and extends to Barrie, Oshawa, Hamilton, Guelph and Kitchener.
I live in Toronto so I don’t have any fear of driving in the City but I admit that it is seriously congested and challenging at times. If you fly into Toronto Pearson airport then take the UP Express (Union-Pearson) into the downtown and avoid the stress.
Re: And you wonder why we have, albeit in small numbers, Libertarians
Libertarians are just socialists that don’t like people. Both philosophies are utterly beyond goofy because neither group can admit the smart-n-savvy people ruin everything ALWAYS.
All transit systems need to be regional not districts.. Yet Ontario needs to stay out of operating a metro transit systems.. The cost will be even greater for Ontarians if the province interjects…
One of the more overriding problems, from the perspective of a transit rider, is that the Toronto Transit Commission and the transit systems of the surrounding communities do not talk to each other.
An outstanding example of this is the MiWay bus system now being installed by Mississauga. From the perspective of a rider who has to get into the downtown core from Mississauga it would have been far more preferable to have extended the TTC line from Kipling Station into Mississauga, but this is considered by the powers that be to be anathema and heresy.
If you live in Mississauga there are few options for getting into the downtown core by public transit. To get to Kipling Station probably the best bet is to take Mississauga transit to Pearson, and then take the 190 Rocket to Kipling Station, and then the subway on in.
Doing something like, say, going from Etobicoke to Scarborough by public transit could involve as many as six carriers, and the payment of several fares. It is not a convenient system. People ride it because they have no option.
The greater Los Angeles are had similar problems some fifty years ago. There was the MTA, and then the SCRTD, and now the LACMTA. True, the car culture was in full cry at the time, but there was much squabbling, now largely (but not entirely) squelched, and the transit system in Southern California does now operate with a reasonable degree of efficiency.
I believe however that Long Beach Transit is still independent and if they are as intransigent as they were when I was there they still do not talk to LACMTA. The animosity between the two was bad enough at one point that riders in the uniform of one agency, even paying the fare, were not allowed on the buses of the other agency – and normally, if you are in uniform you are allowed to deadhead on another agency’s buses as a professional courtesy.
Perhaps a provincial takeover of the subway system can help to break this sort of kingdom building. The people of the GTA need an integrated transit system, not a set of independent, squabbling, fiefdoms.
But what in hell do I know? I’m just a housewife in a small town in the middle of a forest.
The above remarks are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
So the socialist politico says that a new org chart for the Toronto subways “will have devastating consequences for generations to come”. I would guess if anything devastating had ever happened in her life (perhaps joining the Canadians who got slaughtered at Dieppe in 1942 or those who fared not much better at Gold Beach in 1944) she’d know the meaning of “devastating”.
Anyway back to the subject. In 1953 or so, it was enacted by Her Majesty The Queen (this was before Canada had 100% home rule) that the City of Toronto would be united with its suburbs into Metro Toronto. Sixty-six years later, sixty-six years into “Metro” government, we still have the constituent cities and boroughs feuding with each other – Toronto, Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke). Will the wonders of socialist government never cease. And you wonder why we have, albeit in small numbers, Libertarians.
Chinese immigrants coming into North York by the tens of thousands and building that prosperous city up to the sky must wonder why they even bothered.
Anna,
Too your list of places not to drive please add Nashville. (And there’s no way there except to drive or walk – it’s not bicycle friendly either.) On one of my frequent visits to Tennessee suburbia, I had to drive into the city itself. That was over a month ago and my nerves are still shaking.
It’s sad that Metro Toronto is developing cracks. I think it just may be the sheer size. Along with the fact that the outer boroughs (Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough) are no longer suburbs but now are highly populated cities of their own, with their own growing economies.
That may be why Nashville – Metro Davidson hasn’t fallen apart (yet). It’s Nashville and not much else.
C.N.L.
Further to my argument below.
Globe and Mail December 11, 2017 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/our-flawed-transit-governance-is-hindering-rider-experience/article37300463/
Star January 27, 2011 https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2011/01/27/a_unified_transit_system_makes_sense.html
Star September 4, 2018 https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/09/04/grta-needs-one-region-wide-transit-system.html
Sun, February 13, 2019 https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/warren-a-better-transit-plan-for-ford
Toronto has long been on my list of places where I will not take a vehicle into the downtown core. Unfortunately there is little alternative, so when we are there we use taxis and hang the cost. The way I look at it, the taxi driver is used to the kind of take-no-prisoners driving they practice there, and if the car gets hit, it is a hired car and not my own and no skin off my nose.
This is the same kind of logic that causes me to not drive in Mexico City, or in London, or in Rome. I prefer taxis.
The above remarks are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.