[BRIEF NOTE] Notes on a hypothetical takeover of the TTC by Ontario

[rfmcdonald]

Kelly Grant of the Globe and Mail and Tess Malinowski of the Toronto Star have both (very) briefly discussed the possibility, open to consideration by both Mayor Ford and Ontario Premier McGuinty, of the province of Ontario taking the Toronto Transit Commission out of the jurisdiction of the City of Toronto and making it a provincial agency. The biggest benefit of a provincial takeover for Toronto would be, as Grant notes, economic.

The $1.4-billion TTC is a huge financial drain on Toronto, which is virtually alone among major cities in subsidizing day-to-day transit operations on property taxes alone. A complete provincial takeover would free the city to spend elsewhere the $429-million it gives the TTC annually as an operating subsidy. A partial takeover, on the other hand, could be the worst of both worlds for Toronto. If, for example, the province picked up a cash cow like the Yonge subway and left money-bleeding bus routes behind, the city would cede control without reaping adequate savings.

The province: Swallowing the TTC wouldn’t come cheap. Along with paying the system’s $429-million annual operating subsidy, the province would have to assume the municipality’s share of capital projects and purchases. On the bright side, the province, through regional transportation authority Metrolinx, would own new lines outright, allowing it to spread the cost of future subway or light-rail projects over time. The critical question for riders is whether the deficit-laden province could afford to feed more money to the cash-starved TTC. “That’s the big elephant in the bedroom here,” said Ed Levy, a transportation consultant. “Without proper funding, you can change the administration as much as you like and I don’t know what benefit it’s going to have.”

The biggest downside? As Malinowski notes, Toronto would lose control.

Giving the subways over to the province might not make much difference to riders, but when it comes to buses and streetcars, you could be giving the responsibility to a bureaucrat living in a different city with no accountability to the Toronto electorate, said public transit advocate Matthew Blackett, publisher of Spacing magazine.

“If you turn control over to someone who potentially doesn’t live here, doesn’t represent here, then you have people making decisions they’re not accountable for,” he said.

Uploading only subways to the province would be a mistake, said Ryerson professor emeritus Jim Mars.

“Almost all buses and streetcars pass through subway stations, allowing an inexpensive, if occasionally slow, trip for any passenger throughout (the city of Toronto). To upload only the subways would put this system at risk,” he said.

Mind, if--as Grant and Malinowski each suggest--the provincial takeover means that the greater Toronto public transit network gets more tightly knit, a loss of local control might be acceptable. Might.