OPINION: TTC Privatization is Not the Best Answer
Posted March 30, 2010 12:00 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Courtesy TheMarkNews.com
In recent weeks, some mayoral candidates have indicated that they think privatizing TTC routes will solve the problems the TTC is facing. A healthy debate on this proposition is worthwhile, but it shouldn’t distract from the biggest problem facing the TTC: a provincial government that does not pay its fair share of public transit capital and operating costs. The severity of the problem was brought home with last week’s provincial budget. Not only did it fail to set aside money for TTC operating costs, it broke a promise to fund much-needed transit expansion.
Unfortunately, most front-runner candidates, with the exception of Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, have yet to acknowledge this problem. We need candidates who are like good drivers — ones who know how to focus on what’s important and avoid distractions. And being distracted by privatization will not only jeopardize the future of the TTC, it will also undermine Toronto’s ability to use public transit to effectively tackle climate change and reduce smog.
The TTC is an extremely large and complex corporation. Like all large corporations, it must constantly focus on customer service, product reliability, expansion, and finding efficiencies to ensure costs are kept in check.
But unlike a typical large corporation, the TTC doesn’t just rely on customers to pay for the cost of the service; it also relies on governments. That’s because a good transit system benefits everyone: it helps people move around, it reduces traffic congestion for drivers, and it reduces the need for driving so pollution levels drop. Because we all benefit from public transit, governments in every jurisdiction across the planet subsidize the building and cost of providing it.
Until last week’s provincial budget, Premier McGuinty seemed to understand the important role governments play in building transit. His government had set aside over $8 billion to help fund the capital costs of building Transit City, the TTC’s plan to bring Light Rail Transit (LRT) lines to all corners of Toronto. Transit City would provide needed new transit capacity to an already overburdened system and make it much easier for Torontonians to keep their cars at home and use public transit to move around the city and the GTA.
By cutting Transit City funding by $4 billion, the province effectively ensures that only a small fraction of the Transit City lines will ever be built. This dooms Torontonians to more dirty air, traffic congestion and an over-crowded TTC.
But the bad news doesn’t end there. The budget doesn’t set aside a penny to help pay for the TTC’s operating costs.
More than 70 per cent of these are covered by TTC users; the highest percentage in North America. For decades, the province and the city evenly split the remaining 30 per cent. This formula was used by Conservative Premier Bill Davis, Liberal Premier David Peterson and NDP Premier Bob Rae. Then, starting in 1995, Premier Mike Harris cut the provincial contribution. So began a decade of decline in TTC service, the effects of which still haunt us today. In 2004, Toronto City Hall finally turned its attention to the TTC again, outlining plans to undo the damage of the last decade. The TTC ‘s Ridership Growth Strategy of 2003 and Transit City were designed to make up for lost time.
The province has consistently refused to make a permanent funding commitment to once again pay the province’s fair share of TTC operating costs. This refusal has undermined the TTC ‘s ability to plan effectively for the future; you can’t plan properly if you don’t know whether the money will be there to provide the services required.
Currently, the TTC needs about $220 million a year from the province to cover the operating costs that the province historically paid for, an amount that will only rise should Transit City get built.
So the real problem facing the TTC is a provincial government that has failed to live up to its historic commitment to pay operating costs and has now broken a promise to help fund transit expansion.
Talk about privatization will do nothing to solve this. There is no way privatization will cover the $220 million funding gap. Indeed, it could make it worse, as busy, profitable routes are sold off and less revenue flows to the TTC. Moreover, privatization isn’t going to magically produce the billions of dollars needed to build Transit City. Focusing on privatization distracts us from the real issue of how to get the province to meet its historic funding commitment.
What Torontonians need is a vigorous debate among mayoral candidates about what they plan to do, if elected, to get the province to once again pay its fair share of TTC operating and capital costs. Given their common Liberal Party background, mayoral candidates George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi both have good connections to Premier McGuinty. Torontonians deserve to know how these connections could be used to put the TTC back on a firm financial footing.
If mayoral candidates want to talk about privatization, let them do so, but only after they have had a vigorous debate about how best to get the province back to the table. Anything less shows an inability to focus on the real challenge the TTC faces.
Toronto can’t afford a mayor who gets easily distracted; we need a mayor who knows how to keep their eye on the road to better transit and a cleaner environment.
The Mark News is Canada’s online forum for opinion and analysis.
