waterloowarrior
Senior Member
DR. GRIDLOCK
What if Metrolinx started to matter after all?
JEFF GRAY
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090406.GRIDLOCK6ART02249/TPStory/?query=toronto
April 6, 2009
Each Metrolinx board meeting, usually held in a de-oxygenated hotel conference room, was witnessed by a growing contingent of dark-suited bureaucrats and consultants.
While the task at hand was important - drafting a 25-year, $50-billion Toronto-area transportation plan - the most interesting thing was often the colourful local politicians on the provincial agency's board. And now the Premier is kicking them off.
Dr. Gridlock will miss them. Once, Toronto councillor Norm Kelly couldn't conceal his yawns during an especially turgid PowerPoint presentation from a consultant explaining things most of the board already knew.
Mr. Kelly later asked what in the report was new, and the answer, was, well, nothing. (Metrolinx budgeted $1.4-million for consultants in 2008.)
Another time, Durham Region chairman Roger Anderson said Metrolinx's plan to charge municipalities to oversee their transit projects was an "I'm-going-to-watch-you-dig-a-hole fee."
And Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, never afraid to speak her mind, warned once that Metrolinx was creating a "bureaucracy that's second to none." She didn't mean it as a compliment.
York Region Chairman Bill Fisch was also good for a laugh when he proposed widening almost every major road under his control but claimed this was needed for "transit lanes." Oh, wait, he was serious.
When not clicking on their BlackBerries, Toronto Mayor David Miller and Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone often steered their suburban cousins toward transit sanity.
However, the last thing Metrolinx meetings needed was to get even more boring. Enter Dalton McGuinty, who in an attempt to appear to be speeding up recession-fighting spending, decided to exchange Mr. Miller et al for cautious technocrats and sensible business leaders.
Metrolinx and its local politicians could hardly be blamed for the slow pace of spending on transit. The government promised to set it up in 2003 but didn't get it going until 2007, and then Metrolinx produced a massive transportation plan, starting from scratch, in less than two years.
And Mr. McGuinty keeps changing the rules of the game. In 2007, he overrode Metrolinx and picked out $11.5-billion worth of transit projects he wanted to happen, making it unclear what the agency was needed for.
Then, any forward-thinking hint of road pricing - under consideration in cities around the world - was chopped out of Metrolinx's final plan last year after it was vetted by Queen's Park.
Final proof that it may not matter who sits on Metrolinx came last week, when, two days after he dismembered it, Mr. McGuinty promised $9-billion for Mayor David Miller's transformative light-rail vision and York Region's groundbreaking Viva bus lanes.
At least we journalists may not have to sit through as many Metrolinx meetings. It looks like the new body will be more likely to convene in secret, except when major policies are being passed.
This, of course, may concern some people, perhaps especially those who wonder why their GO train - GO Transit will soon be under Metrolinx's direct control - didn't come.
However, among the high-powered business types on the new board could be current member Paul Bedford, a former Toronto chief planner, and current chairman and former Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac.
Despite the repeated vetoes for the idea from Queen's Park, both are consistent advocates for at least starting a discussion around road pricing in this city. Perhaps Metrolinx might start to matter after all.
jgray@globeandmail.com
What if Metrolinx started to matter after all?
JEFF GRAY
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090406.GRIDLOCK6ART02249/TPStory/?query=toronto
April 6, 2009
Each Metrolinx board meeting, usually held in a de-oxygenated hotel conference room, was witnessed by a growing contingent of dark-suited bureaucrats and consultants.
While the task at hand was important - drafting a 25-year, $50-billion Toronto-area transportation plan - the most interesting thing was often the colourful local politicians on the provincial agency's board. And now the Premier is kicking them off.
Dr. Gridlock will miss them. Once, Toronto councillor Norm Kelly couldn't conceal his yawns during an especially turgid PowerPoint presentation from a consultant explaining things most of the board already knew.
Mr. Kelly later asked what in the report was new, and the answer, was, well, nothing. (Metrolinx budgeted $1.4-million for consultants in 2008.)
Another time, Durham Region chairman Roger Anderson said Metrolinx's plan to charge municipalities to oversee their transit projects was an "I'm-going-to-watch-you-dig-a-hole fee."
And Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, never afraid to speak her mind, warned once that Metrolinx was creating a "bureaucracy that's second to none." She didn't mean it as a compliment.
York Region Chairman Bill Fisch was also good for a laugh when he proposed widening almost every major road under his control but claimed this was needed for "transit lanes." Oh, wait, he was serious.
When not clicking on their BlackBerries, Toronto Mayor David Miller and Toronto Transit Commission chairman Adam Giambrone often steered their suburban cousins toward transit sanity.
However, the last thing Metrolinx meetings needed was to get even more boring. Enter Dalton McGuinty, who in an attempt to appear to be speeding up recession-fighting spending, decided to exchange Mr. Miller et al for cautious technocrats and sensible business leaders.
Metrolinx and its local politicians could hardly be blamed for the slow pace of spending on transit. The government promised to set it up in 2003 but didn't get it going until 2007, and then Metrolinx produced a massive transportation plan, starting from scratch, in less than two years.
And Mr. McGuinty keeps changing the rules of the game. In 2007, he overrode Metrolinx and picked out $11.5-billion worth of transit projects he wanted to happen, making it unclear what the agency was needed for.
Then, any forward-thinking hint of road pricing - under consideration in cities around the world - was chopped out of Metrolinx's final plan last year after it was vetted by Queen's Park.
Final proof that it may not matter who sits on Metrolinx came last week, when, two days after he dismembered it, Mr. McGuinty promised $9-billion for Mayor David Miller's transformative light-rail vision and York Region's groundbreaking Viva bus lanes.
At least we journalists may not have to sit through as many Metrolinx meetings. It looks like the new body will be more likely to convene in secret, except when major policies are being passed.
This, of course, may concern some people, perhaps especially those who wonder why their GO train - GO Transit will soon be under Metrolinx's direct control - didn't come.
However, among the high-powered business types on the new board could be current member Paul Bedford, a former Toronto chief planner, and current chairman and former Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac.
Despite the repeated vetoes for the idea from Queen's Park, both are consistent advocates for at least starting a discussion around road pricing in this city. Perhaps Metrolinx might start to matter after all.
jgray@globeandmail.com
