Heads may roll at TTC over Spadina subway


Torontosun.com
March 11, 2015
By Don Peat

Will heads roll at the TTC over Spadina subway cost overruns? Stay tuned.

With the subway extension on track to go millions overbudget and to likely be delayed, TTC Chair Josh Colle confirmed Wednesday that personnel are “being reviewed” ahead of the commission debate on the next steps for the project.

“It is not for the commission to make those calls but ultimately Andy Byford as the CEO,” Colle said. “I know that those decisions are being reviewed in light of some of the findings.”

Mayor John Tory - who was “furious” at news of cost overruns last week - said there has to be “some accountability” for “gross overspending on projects” and “gross missing of timetables.”

“I hate to say it but it is a reality every other person in Toronto faces in their daily lives which is if you don’t do your job in a way that allows people to say you achieved reasonable results based on achieving things on time and on budget then sometimes people have to lose their jobs,” Tory said.

“I totally endorse what Mr. Colle has said and what is going to have to be done to examine this area because it is obvious to me whoever has been running it ... were not doing the kind of job that would warrant their being recognized in a positive way and may warrant something quite different.”

Tory said the search for responsibility in the Spadina saga should go from top to bottom at the TTC.

“There are an awful lot of people, I’ll describe it as in the middle, who sometimes want to just get their hands on these projects and make their own little change ... and they do it without accountability,” he said.

Byford was tight-lipped about the personnel review.

“Our priority is completing the staff report in advance of our March 26 board meeting,” Byford told the Sun.

“I will not comment on or speculate on personnel matters.”