Mayor Ford’s first stop: Hit brakes on Transit City
Peter Kuitenbrouwer November 30, 2010 – 12:00 am
Rob Ford has called a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday morning at which he is expected, in his first move as mayor, to tell the head of the TTC to stop building the Transit City light-rail network
The Toronto Transit Commission has already lost its spokesman for Transit City.
“Ryan Bissonnette moved on a couple of weeks ago,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross, who will be answering all future Transit City questions.
According to a source, Mr. Bissonnette, the Transit City spokesman, left the TTC after his bosses told him to stop talking to reporters. His departure came a few days after he took the National Post on a tour of Transit City projects on Sheppard Avenue East.
Mr. Ross confirmed the new mayor will meet Gary Webster, chief general manager of the TTC, on Wednesday but would not discuss the subject matter.
Mr. Ford said during the campaign he wants no light rail: only a subway to Scarborough.
A little more than three weeks after the election, on Nov. 19, Rob Prichard, the chairman of Metrolinx, the provincial transit authority, and Bruce McCuaig, Metrolinx CEO, met on the 16th Floor of City Hall’s west tower with four members of Mr. Ford’s transition team: Nick Kouvalis, Mr. Ford’s chief of staff; Mark Towhey, his director of policy; and former city councillors Gordon Chong and Case Ootes.
Metrolinx sought the Ford team’s blessing for the light-rail plan, but got nowhere.
“There was no sense of backing off,” said a source. “They are pretty keen on a subway.”
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Mr. Ford’s appointee to head the TTC, Councillor Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence) has been a longtime supporter of Transit City, whose centrepiece is a light-rail line along Eglinton Avenue, with its central stretch travelling through a tunnel. In April Ms. Stintz campaigned alongside Mayor David Miller at the Eglinton subway station to “save Transit City,” saying, “I fully support Mayor Miller and his initiative and I’m proud to stand here beside him and get the message out.”
But on Monday Ms. Stintz conceded that things have changed.
“The Metrolinx plan will be revisited and I will continue to support the Metrolinx plan as it gets revised provided it meets the objectives of the administration,” she said. “I campaigned on the Metrolinx plan.”