Next week, the Ontario Legislature will consider a motion from NDP Transit Critic, Joel Harden, to have the Government of Ontario match municipal contributions to operating and maintaining transit systems. This is how it worked in the 80s and 90s when TTC service levels and ridership were among the best in North America.
Local 113 will be watching the vote closely to see if Premier Ford is serious about giving transit the funding it needs.
As TTC workers, we see every day the lack of investment in transit. Inadequate service is chasing riders away. Maintenance is postponed and ignored. This is causing slow orders and safety issues across the system. Premier Ford’s government is willing to invest billions in new, privately built and maintained transit lines while the existing system is left to crumble. Developers get to build shiny new condos served by the new transit lines while today’s riders are seeing steady service reductions.
The heart of the problem is that the City of Toronto has to pay for the TTC through property taxes and transit fares. The federal and provincial governments have access to sales and income taxes that grow with the economy, but they refuse to pay for transit operations.