City council approves $15M TTC request to extend health and safety measures
Posted March 30, 2023 9:48 pm.
Last Updated March 30, 2023 9:50 pm.
Toronto city council has approved a request from the Toronto Transit Commission to withdraw $15 million from its reserve funds to take care of what it calls “interim measures.”
TTC CEO Rick Leary says the funding is needed for health and safety, such as extending the contracts for safety officers on the transit system until the end of the year.
Leary acknowledged on Thursday that people are scared to ride the TTC.
“That’s what I hear from people, it makes them very nervous,” said Leary. “They are nervous, they’re nervous to send their kids out on the TTC.”
“That’s part of the approach that we’re taking by bringing as many staff as possible into the TTC, as many outside help as possible so that people start having that comfort level again.”
Back in January, the city added security guards and community safety ambassadors to address immediate concerns. Toronto police also stepped up its presence on the transit network by enlisting more than 80 officers to put in overtime shifts for extra patrols on the TTC. Those additional shifts came to an end on March 13. Police said they were returning to deploying on-duty officers on the TTC for regular, proactive patrols.
“We only have a finite number of resources as well, so we can get pulled away to other competing things that are occurring in the city and certainly it’s not the same as dedicating police resources entirely to TTC safety,” said Deputy Police Chief Lauren Pogue.
Some councillors say the funding is merely a bandaid solution. They are calling for more social services to deal with any mental health issues that arise and that leave both customers and employees concerned about using the system.
“Of course, I’m concerned about going further into reserves,” said Toronto-St. Paul’s councillor Josh Matlow, who is also running to be the next mayor of Toronto. “Obviously we need to meet the moment where there is enormous insecurity and justified concern about safety in the TTC that needs to be addressed. That being said we can’t just keep putting bandaids on it.”
City officials say what’s collected at the fare box won’t cut it and the bottom line is they can’t keep dipping into savings without both the province and federal governments stepping in.
“We know we need to do more. We know we can do more,” said Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie. “But we also need to show today to the province and the federal government that they need to step up and help us. For too long, we’ve been plugging the holes in the system. We’ve been stepping up when they haven’t.”
Thank you to City Council for approving my motion today on TTC safety. pic.twitter.com/8YYFky2AkD
— Jennifer McKelvie (@McKelvieTO) March 30, 2023
When asked about helping Toronto out of its financial hole, Premier Doug Ford said it was a hard no.
“I didn’t hear anything about driving efficiencies, driving standardization, focusing on lean practices,” said Ford, when asked about the situation at an unrelated press conference in Hamilton on Thursday.
“Guess what folks, there’s one pair of pants where that money is coming from and that is each and every one of us that is paying our taxes.”
Ford reiterated he wanted to see more police patrolling Toronto’s transit system.
Asked whether the city could use provincial funds earmarked for guns and gangs to assign more officers to the TTC, Ford said it would be up to the Toronto police board.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before – all these tragedies happening, but it has to stop,” the premier said.
“The way it stops and the way you pick up ridership is by making sure we have a safe transit system in Toronto and the way we have a safe transit system is our Toronto police working with our transit police and boots on the ground.”
