Confused about the direction Toronto is heading on public transit?

Join the club, says Councillor Michael Thompson, who blames the politicians for sowing confusion.

Thompson expects a showdown Monday when city council tackles the issue of who should serve on a newly constituted Toronto Transit Commission.

Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) said people have every right to wonder what’s going on considering the constantly shifting landscape, with deals being made and then broken.

First the current nine-councillor commission was to be dissolved in favour of a seven-person commission with four councillors and three citizens; then an 11-member body with six councillors and five citizens; and finally seven councillors and four citizens.

Thompson said political egos and a desire to grab a plum post on the TTC are blocking progress on transit planning.

“The question is when is it going to end? So many people are wanting to promote their own selves and their personal interest rather than what’s best overall for our community.”

The commission is currently made up of nine councillors. Sources say the five supporters of Mayor Rob Ford who back his subway plan want to keep their seats on the commission.

Meanwhile, an alternative proposal would shift the commission toward supporting surface light rail by removing the Ford five, keeping Councillors Karen Stintz (the current chair), John Parker, Peter Milczyn and Maria Augimeri, and adding Glenn De Baeremaeker, Josh Colle and Joe Mihevc. The four citizens would be added in June.

Thompson thinks a better and more balanced commission could be fostered by giving a majority of the seats to citizens with expertise in transit engineering, financing and planning.

Thompson’s proposal won immediate support from the mayor and Councillor Doug Ford, who backed it on their Sunday radio talk show.

“I think that’s a great idea,” the mayor said of an all-citizen TTC. “The less politicians, the better.”

Added Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North): “I don’t think politicians should be in the business of running business.”

Thompson believes a citizen-led commission would be better able to come up with a clear vision on expanding transit that could move forward.

“By continuing to be confused and doing nothing, we send the message to the public that we don’t really have a transit plan.”

“How can the public have clarity, how can they know what direction we’re going, when we’re unclear ourselves? The public are looking to us to provide leadership and what we’ve provided is more confusion than anything else.”

The TTC in the past has had citizen representatives on its board, including the chair, but that model is fraught with potential problems, Augimeri said.

“I was around when we had citizen members. There were backroom deals all the time. They weren’t accountable to the public. They had no fear of being ousted from office. It was all ego trips.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Augimeri (Ward 9, York Centre) said she believes confusion has resulted more from Ford touting a subway plan for Scarborough that doesn’t have the money lined up to pay for it.

Augimeri, a longtime backer of the York University subway line now being built through her ward, said she’s been wrongly painted as pro-light rail.

Ford’s Scarborough subway vision “is a great idea,” she said. “I’d love to bring a subway to Scarborough. But it’s not funded.”

Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s), who previously served on the TTC under then-mayor David Miller, said he supports having expert citizens on board but wouldn’t say how many.

“A number of possibilities are being considered, but yes, I think citizen expertise would help the TTC,” Mihevc said.

Going into the debate, four possible outcomes include a pro-subway or pro-LRT commission, a balanced commission that supports both types of transit and a commission with the majority of votes controlled by citizens.

“Any and all of those things are possible,” Mihevc said. “It’s a very dynamic political environment. Many options are on the table.”

Thompson argued the commission would not have faced such upheaval if it had citizen members with experience in business and government such as John Tory and David Crombie.

“It wouldn’t have gotten to this point,” Thompson said. “It’s a failure that we have gotten to this point where we’re all trying at the 11th hour to make deals and not necessarily look out for the best interests of the city.

“I think the province was on to something when they removed the politicians from Metrolinx (the provincial transit agency). As long as you have politicians in charge, you have the strife that you’re seeing now on the TTC. And you’re not going to build anything.”

With files from Noor Javed