steveintoronto
Superstar
I think you're missing the essential point: Keesmaat is using *their own words* to make the point you are.Toronto hasn't paid a majority share of TTC capital expenses since the 70's; other levels of government will be paying the bulk of nearly any plan that gets put forward.
However, just because the province has a larger revenue stream isn't an excuse to spend freely without attempting to maximize benefits; and by benefits I mean a happy/healthy society NOT whether some group of politicians can buy re-election through it.
"TTC and who pays capital expenses" is a convoluted discussion in itself. What's important in this discussion is 'setting up' certain parties to divulge more than is healthy for their public statements.
Addendum: Just to illustrate that I'm not 'fudging' answers to a bigger context on the TTC capital budget, I'll quote Steve Munro, who is meticulous and referenced:
https://stevemunro.ca/2017/10/06/navigating-the-ttcs-ten-year-capital-plan-2018-27/A major problem with the TTC’s budget and plan is the ever-growing list of “unfunded” projects. There are now at least five groups:
This backlog represents almost as much as the “funded” portion of the budget, and the absence of clear information on the need for, timing and priority of these projects is a huge gap in the information presented to the Commission and to Council. Changes in the timing of any of these projects and/or the need to move them into “funded” status will have a domino effect through the entire TTC and City budgets by bringing costs into years where funding is not now available.
- Projects that are officially in the “base budget” but for which no funding has been identified ($2.273 billion)
- New projects that are not in the base, but which are shown in the chart of funding sources as a contribution to the shortfall ($1.05 billion).
- Changes in scope of existing projects for which there is no funding ($128 million).
- Additional projects that do not exist in any of the lists ($2.216 billion).
- Projects listed in the detailed budget, but with spending planned (if it is shown at all) beyond the 2018-2027 plan’s window.
This list does not include any major rapid transit projects such as the Scarborough Subway (SSE), the Relief Line (RL), SmartTrack (a City project separate from the TTC’s budget) or the LRT expansions on the Waterfront West or Eglinton East (once part of the Scarborough “package”). Only the SSE has “funding” in the sense that resources from three governments are earmarked to build it, but this project could still run aground if the costs at 30% design come in higher than the current estimate.
Note: In various places in this article, I quote the TTC’s responses to questions about details of the budget. These were supplied by Brad Ross, Executive Director of Corporate Communications, from TTC staff. Thanks to Brad for this.
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Special emphasis:
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This list does not include any major rapid transit projects such as the Scarborough Subway (SSE), the Relief Line (RL), SmartTrack (a City project separate from the TTC’s budget) or the LRT expansions on the Waterfront West or Eglinton East (once part of the Scarborough “package”). Only the SSE has “funding” in the sense that resources from three governments are earmarked to build it, but this project could still run aground if the costs at 30% design come in higher than the current estimate.
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Indeed...and Keesmaat is playing on this, quite brilliantly. The next few days will show even more 'shakeout' from her 'presentation' as opponents trip over themselves to trash it....at the same time as owning it.
There's some deep reverse sexism about it...
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