What transit needs now is an evangelist at city hall

Mayor John Tory needs to step up and be the teacher, motivator and salesman the city needs.

Thestar.com
Feb. 29, 2016
By Royson James

Toronto’s ability or failure to clearly and boldly define its transit future rests at the door of the mayor. He or she is the only one with the city-wide political mandate to attempt such a feat.

The mayor has the moral and civic authority. He has the biggest bully pulpit in the country. He needs the guts and the heart for the task.

This is not a new problem, obviously. At amalgamation in 1998, some thought the mayor of more than 2 million people would organically evolve into the spokesman for the region. David Miller heralded the evolution, coming after Mel Lastman. But the last occupant of the office set us back. Now, John Tory has a splendid opportunity.

What does he expect of our transit projects now under study? What are our greatest and most pressing needs identified by city planners - not the mayor’s re-election campaign team? Is it increased capacity at Union Station or relief of the Yonge line, near capacity? Should we embrace the concept of a roughly equal number of subway stops in each suburb? Or do we go where the ridership takes us?

Like a good teacher, is he able to show us how to arrive at the answer and so empower each citizen to push towards this vision of transit heaven? So far, emphatically no.

Instead, the mayor has confused the populace with a signature wildcard project (SmartTrack) that diverts attention from fixes that appear to be more critical to our transit future. While staff struggle to rehabilitate SmartTrack for political consumption, the mayor must be muted and restrained - unable to play the role of lead teacher, motivator and salesman.

No one has assumed the role - hence my total condemnation of city council, because neither mayor nor chair of the TTC nor anyone has been able to move the public in a comprehensive, targeted discussion of our transit needs and solutions.

“There is no single correct plan for improving transit in Toronto,” says Councillor Gord Perks, defensively. “Transit planning depends on first deciding what transit should do for the city. That is a matter of opinion - a political question,” Perks writes in response to my column last Thursday.

Agreed. So, then, councillor, answer the question, please. Better yet, first, pose the question.

One must conclude that no politician at city hall “gets it” because it is rare to find one willing to pose the question, lay out the answers, provide the data and studies and evidence from other jurisdictions and do so in a crisp, credible, engaging way to galvanize public sentiment and opinion.

Sometime in June, city councillors will be considering numerous reports on transit plans - including the Yonge relief lines, Scarborough subway, waterfront LRTs and others. Usually councillors choke on one project, so it should be comical to watch them contemplate three or five. So, we anticipate advocates for one idea or another. We rarely get leaders with steel in their back and a resolve to find out what’s right and promote it as best for the metropolis.

Despite our seeming unpreparedness, we are indeed lucky. Ottawa and Queen’s Park want to throw infrastructure dollars at us - even at political pet projects before they are studied. Tragically, we have maps on a line but no philosophical resolution on which ones best serve our essential needs, versus our wants and our “nice to haves.”
That comes from a conversation, a wrestling of competing interests, a public, yes political, question-and-answer.

Who is ideal to lead this? The mayor, obviously, as he is elected by all the people. The chair of the TTC would normally be a key cog, but the TTC has been neutered - shut out of future transit planning by provincial agency Metrolinx.

Metrolinx has no politicians on its board. It has no moral or political authority to move the issue - not without a joint, focused, concerted union with the mayor, the voice of the people. Not only has that voice and effort been missing, it has been corrupted.

The last mayor stomped all over the credibility of the office and poisoned the transit well. The current occupant doesn’t seem to get that he has to be a transit evangelist, a teacher, a storyteller who engages and inspires his city-classroom to appreciate the joy and wonder of a future facilitated by public transit, not crippled by the lack thereof.

Demand unvarnished truth from neutral planning staff, seek inspiration from your chief planner, cut loose that which runs counter to the broad public good, and take us to transit school. Deliver truth, transparency, passion, guts.

Creating a new political mindset is always bumpy and slow. “It’s a real brain-breaker, this transit thing,” Perks says. “But we do our best.”

It hasn’t been good enough, sir.