City, provincial leaders cool on proposal to upload municipal transit agencies to Ontario
Toronto Region Board of Trade report calls for creation of new "Superlinx" agency to take charge of transit in Toronto-Waterloo Corridor.

TheStar.com
Nov. 27, 2017
Ben Spurr

Municipal and provincial leaders are slamming the brakes on the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s proposal to merge city transit agencies from Durham to Waterloo under a single body controlled by the Ontario government.

In a report released Monday, the Board called for the creation of a new organization, nicknamed “Superlinx,” that would take responsibility for the operating and capital costs of GO Transit, the TTC, and 10 other municipal transit agencies. The business advocacy group argued uploading transit to the province would reduce political interference, free up municipal resources for other badly needed infrastructure, and pave the way for the creation of a single seamless network within the increasingly integrated Toronto-Waterloo Corridor.

The Board’s proposal is separate from and more extreme than one pitched Saturday by Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown, who pledged his government would take on only the capital costs of TTC subway stations, tracks, and tunnels if he’s elected premier next year.

Liberal Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca threw cold water on the Board’s Superlinx idea Monday, saying this is no time to get bogged down in governance issues when so many transit projects are underway or coming to fruition.

"My focus . . . is to make sure that we get shovels in the ground and we actually build, and that at all costs we avoid going down kind of elongated rabbit holes of process debates, who owns what, who's responsible for what," he told reporters Monday.

"We cannot take our eye off the ball. We need to be very focused . . . on the commuters."

Mayor John Tory said uploading transit agencies shouldn’t be the region’s priority. He too said the focus should be on completing existing transit projects, as well as advancing fare integration, which would create a single standardized payment system for transit systems across the GTHA. More closely aligning TTC and GO Transit fares is a key part of his SmartTrack proposal.

“I would like to see us get something done like fare integration first and see how difficult it is to get these 12 systems and all of these governments to work together,” he said.

He also expressed concerns about the proposed structure of the Superlinx board, half of which would be made up of business leaders, transit experts, and citizens’ advocates nominated by an independent panel. The remainder would consist of agency executives and provincial and municipal government representatives.

The makeup of the board was designed to limit undue political influence, but Tory said it was important to strike a balance between “what you might gain by way of having politicians play somewhat of a lesser role” and “the loss of what I’ll call local autonomy with respect to the operation of a transit system.”

Toronto city Councillor Gord Perks, a frequent critic of the mayor’s, echoed those concerns. He charged that allowing a provincial body control over local transit would be “disastrous.”

“I don’t see for the life of me why someone appointed by the province of Ontario should be deciding on the frequency of the Dufferin bus,” he said.

Tom Galloway, a member of Waterloo Regional Council and chair of the planning and works committee, helps oversee Grand River Transit, which carries nearly 20 million passengers a year on about 70 bus routes. He said he also doubted a provincial body’s ability to effectively operate local lines.

“A provincial agency running a transit system, how sensitive is it going to be to neighbourhood needs?” he asked.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s said the Board’s proposal was worth exploring if it could lead to savings for municipalities. The city’s MiWay agency spends about $73.3 million net a year to carry almost 40 million bus passengers.

According to the Board report, cities would contribute to the cost of Superlinx operating transit, but would pay less than they currently give their own transit agencies. Superlinx would offset the difference by aggressively pursuing development along transit lines, while completely relieving cities of the obligation to pay for transit expansion.

“If there are service and cost efficiencies to be found through this approach, we should study this further,” Crombie said in an emailed statement.

At least one municipal representative. Oshawa and Durham regional councillor John Neal, was eager to embrace the Superlinx idea, and argued the current system is too fractured.

Durham Region is suing Oshawa for $8.9 million in a dispute over which government is responsible for paying the pensions and liabilities of the city’s transit system following its 2004 transfer to the region. Taxpayers are already on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

“We’re suing ourselves, with the best lawyers,” Neal said. “Hand it to the province, and let them do it.”