TTC and Metrolinx to hold joint board meeting
The two agencies will sit down together for the first time at the end of the month.

thestar.com
April 6, 2016
By Tess Kalinowski

The TTC and Metrolinx will finally sit down to a historic joint board meeting at the end of the month - a practice the chair of the TTC says should be at least an annual event.

The two transit agencies will meet the evening of April 27 in the Metrolinx board office at Union Station. The agenda is still being decided. It will be posted before the meeting, which will be open to the public.

"Because of the multitude of projects where we're intersecting - Presto, the Crosstown, fare integration - we need to hear each other's perspectives a little more formally and I thought this is a good way to do that," said Councillor Josh Colle, the TTC chair.

The meeting comes after much discussion about the need for more TTC involvement in the planning of regional transit. Colle, Mayor John Tory, and TTC CEO Andy Byford have already attended the Metrolinx board and senior Metrolinx officials have visited with the TTC board.

"I would like it to become somewhat regular. At the very least we should do this annually. Depending on how productive it seems we could then do more," said Colle.

But there are some logistical issues. There's no framework for TTC board members to make motions at a Metrolinx board meeting, for example.

Colle agrees with former TTC chair Karen Stintz that there should be some elected Toronto representatives on the Metrolinx board, which is appointed by the province from the public, private and non-profit sectors.

"I think if this also triggers some of that discussion too that's not a bad thing," he said.

TTC vice-chair Alan Heisey, an appointed citizen member of that board, has pushed for the city to recommend cross-board appointments for the two agencies. But this week he said he didn't know if that TTC recommendation had gone anywhere at council.