Liberals introduce legislation to make TTC an essential service
Posted February 22, 2011 10:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial Liberals introduced legislation Tuesday that will aim to make the TTC an essential service.
The bill was introduced by Labour Minister Charles Sousa.
“A million and a half riders, that’s a million and a half reasons we need to act. The city of Toronto, the city council has requested TTC be an essential service and we said we’d take it seriously,” said Minister Sousa.
Both Mayor Rob Ford and TTC chair Karen Stintz have been out spoken in their requests to have the service deemed essential.
“We’re very pleased about the provincial initiative, we look forward to the legislation being passed quickly, and we will continue to work in partnership with the province to ensure that happens” said Stintz
The TTC’s contract expires March 31st. If it passes, this bill would ban strikes and lockouts by employees.
But the proposal is not without its critics. The New Democratic Party is already hinting it may try and block the bill from passing, say making the TTC an essential service may cost taxpayers more over time.
And Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear has been outspoken in his criticism of the plan and Toronto’s city council.
“Obviously we’re disappointed. We have been offering to sit down with the city and work something out that was mutually agreed to. The city over and over, Karen Stintz specifically, has been talking about continuity of service. The proposal that we put forward would have ensured that during this round of bargaining. Unfortunately Karen has the wrong ‘c’ word. She is looking for confrontation. That’s what this legislation is about, it’s about taking on the unions. It’s unfortunate that the mayor of this city is too much of a coward to be upfront about the fact that that’s what he’s trying to do,” Kinnear said.
TTC work stoppages are estimated to cost the city $50 million a day. There have been nine such stoppages since 1974.
