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TORONTO
Thursday, September 22, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Outdoor. Show
Transit pledge proves tempting NDP vow to cover half of operating costs catches attention of TTC chair Plan is contingent on promise to freeze fares KATE ALLEN/TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
Coldplay’s Chris Martin, left, and Jonny Buckland perform live from the MuchMusic parking lot in downtown Toronto last night. Coldplay’s new album, Mylo Xyloto, is set to be released Oct. 24. CONTRIBUTED/MUCHMUSIC
Coldplay go live in T.O.
She’s known as a right-leaning city councillor, but TTC chair Karen Stintz doesn’t deny the appeal of the Ontario NDP’s public-transit platform. After all, the city has been asking the province to restore its transit operating subsidy for years. Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has promised that if she wins the Oct. 6 election, her party will take over nearly half of Toronto’s operating subsidy of about $500 million annually for the TTC, including Wheel-Trans. “It would be a huge contribution,” allowing the TTC the reliable funding it needs to operate strategically rather than lurching from one financial crisis to the next, said Stintz. The NDP promise, contingent on a promise to freeze fares for four years, would be worth about $225 million a year. To put that in con-
“Toronto needs to figure out what its fundamentals are before we have a further conversation. The city is in a discussion about all its services. The TTC is just one part of that.” INCUMBENT TRANSPORTATION MINISTER KATHLEEN WYNNE
text, the TTC has just agreed to pack its buses tighter, reduce service, cut about 1,000 jobs, evict dialysis patients from Wheel-Trans and
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consider a 10 cent fare hike in the name of eliminating a $101-million projected operating shortfall in 2012. But growing the system would require some flexibility on the issue of the fare freeze, said Stintz. Left-leaning transit blogger Steve Munro agrees, estimating the TTC’s operating needs will grow by about six per cent — about $90 million annually, not including new costs such as opening the Spadina subway extension. “In four years, the TTC’s costs will be $360 million greater than they are today, and if all of this goes to the subsidy account, that will bring Toronto to a subsidy level above $800 million. The provincial share would be more than the entire amount set aside by the NDP for this program in their budget estimates (of $375 million by 20152016),” writes Munro. TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
More election coverage {page 8}