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Sorbara's experts didn't help many of the school boards to which they were sent.

(Sorry, was the Sorbara or the Education Minister - what was his name?)
 
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/239548

Province hasn't ruled out taking over TTC
Jul 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Tess Kalinowski
Robert Benzie
STAFF REPORTERS

The province isn't making any threats – yet.

But neither cabinet ministers nor TTC observers have dismissed the idea of a Queen's Park takeover of the country's largest transit system.

With threats of subway closures, fare hikes and bus cuts looming, questions have surfaced already about who will ride to the rescue of Toronto transit users, now that the city has ordered the TTC to cut $30 million in spending this year and $100 million the next.

If Ontario's new Greater Toronto Transit Authority can take over GO Transit and oversee the creation of a single-fare system across eight regional transit agencies, why couldn't it also integrate the TTC?

Asked Friday whether the province would consider it, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said, "One couldn't make that kind of decision based on a week in politics."

However, he added, "Down the road we might look at a different way of approaching the management of heavy rail in this city. There's two heavy rail operators in the province: There's GO Transit and there's the TTC. Is there a better way to combine that? I'm not sure, but I think those are the things that we have to look at dispassionately rather than simply make announcements that make everyone nervous."

Sorbara stressed the province's proposal to spend $17.5 billion on a GTA transit expansion and the already funded subway extension to York Region will still go ahead.

Meanwhile, TTC commissioners were wondering whether there's any point to building subway stations and a streetcar network when there's no money to hire operators.

Within hours of Sorbara's remarks, they had decided to study the impact of pulling out of the Spadina expansion plan.

The TTC's response led to this warning from TTC patron David Fisher: "The day is coming when this system is going to be taken away from the city of Toronto."

Maybe, but not too soon, hopes transportation expert Richard Soberman. "Any idea of a takeover or a combination (of GO and TTC rail) is entirely premature because the GTTA isn't fully formed yet."

TTC chair Adam Giambrone, who also sits on the GTTA, said yesterday that board wants to lead without rushing to take over municipal jurisdictions, and Queen's Park doesn't have a track record of taking on an enterprise the size of the TTC.

"It's hard for us to imagine the province wanting to do that. At the same time, they would be held accountable for each and every problem the TTC has," he said. But he concedes: "Nothing's impossible."

The activist credited with helping to save Toronto's streetcar system in the '70s, Steve Munro, says: "Queen's Park has a lovely hands-off position. All of a sudden people are asking Dalton McGuinty where the Queen (street)car is, and I don't think that's a question he wants to answer."
 
Perhaps the better way is to simply have the province take over the entire operation of the city. The entire province's population of 12.7 million is smaller than many cities around the globe.

For example, Tokyo, Japan has a population of 28,025,000. New York City has 16,626,000 people, while Los Angeles has 13,129,000. I say let's do the same for all of Ontario as a single unit. We could even have an Ontario Deputy Minister for Toronto, reporting to the Minister of Municipalities, covering local issues like garbage collection, animal control, sewers, public houses, fire and ambulances, etc.

If this can't be done, then a realistic idea would be to amalgamate the entire GTA, from east to west as one city under one mega municipal government.

BTW, handy website at http://www.citypopulation.de/WorldPop.html
 
If this can't be done, then a realistic idea would be to amalgamate the entire GTA
Click to expand...

I think a report authored by Anne Golden suggested something like this many years ago.
 
Hydrogen said:
I think a report authored by Anne Golden suggested something like this many years ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah it did. Amalgamating the old Metro with its constituent municipalities was the first step. Regretfully it ended there.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
Yeah it did. Amalgamating the old Metro with its constituent municipalities was the first step. Regretfully it ended there.
Click to expand...
Maybe after Hazel expires and her mummified remains are underglass in the Mississauga City Hall, we will be better able to consider GTA amalgamation.
 
Re: Hazel under glass...

I wonder if the lines will be as long as they are in Red Square?

----------------

Globe and Mail: Make Toronto drivers pay

KAREN WOOLRIDGE

July 26, 2007

Toronto -- Toronto may very well have an appetite for increased taxes, just not the combo Mayor David Miller proposed (Province Won't Bail Out Toronto, McGuinty Says - Toronto editions, July 25). City council should not back a land transfer tax, instead it should load all of the taxation bite onto car ownership. Then, it should do as they do in Singapore and fund transit through that tax.

Singaporeans pay at least four different taxes to own a vehicle and operate it in rush hour. Singaporean public transport is state of the art; even with the taxes, there are still lots of vehicles on the road.

It's time for Mr. Miller to go back to the drawing board.
 
I'd support that, but only if there was rapid transit to get me to Kitchener from Union Station in the AM, and home to Union in the PM. There are a least several thousand one-occupant cars making the same trip as me each day, so moving us out of our cars might work.
 
GregWTravels said:
Singaporeans pay at least four different taxes to own a vehicle and operate it in rush hour. Singaporean public transport is state of the art; even with the taxes, there are still lots of vehicles on the road.
Click to expand...

I like the idea, but it is much easier to implement in a city-state.
 
Was the province going to collect the money for the city?
Click to expand...

Yes. Though Sorbara was humming and hawing about tis until the last minute - MTO was not at all enthusiastic either.
 
The auto tax would have affected me negatively, but not the real estate tax. If I ever sell my Cabbagetown semi it will be to move out of Toronto entirely, so my buyer will have to cover the tax, but not me when I buy a new place. I spend last evening at the Snug Harbour restaurant in Port Credit, and have to say that's a nice area, with some nice houses.
 
Star

Link to article

The TTC wants to hear from you

Aug 27, 2007 01:25 PM
Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter
Would TTC service cuts send you straight to your car in the morning?

The transit authority is asking riders to tell it how they would get to work if their bus service got cut or fares increased between 10 and 25 cents.

The TTC has been asked to trim $30 million from its spending this year and to expect more cuts next year to help alleviate a city budget crisis.

An online questionnaire that will also be part of a brochure being distributed on the system over the next two weeks, asks how riders would prefer the funding gap be addressed: with new city taxes; fare increases; or service reductions.

Service expansions — including the addition of 100 new buses on city routes that had been planned for this year — have already been cancelled.

Whether further cuts should proceed, including the closing of the Sheppard subway, will be debated at a meeting next month.

“Service cuts are something we don’t want to do, especially considering the unprecedented growth and momentum the TTC has built this year,†said Chair Adam Giambrone in a press release today. “We must protect the system Torontonians have built together as much as possible, despite the unpalatable choices the Commission is faced with.â€

The web survey is available at www.ttc.ca.

http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/myttc.html#comparison
 
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