If the province expects cities to co-operate in raising the tolls and taxes needed to expand public transit in the Toronto area, Metrolinx should put some municipal politicians back on its board, says TTC chair Karen Stintz.

She outlined her vision of an integrated regional transit system in a speech to the Toronto Board of Trade on Monday. Stintz said the TTC is stepping away from building projects such as the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT. At the same time, she said, the province should step up and subsidize the operation of the lines it builds.

Stintz pointed to the Spadina subway extension connecting York Region to Toronto as a success because it has been funded by all three levels of government.

However, she added, “It is my belief this is the last time this model is going to be used to build an inter-regional line in the region. If we’re going to be building lines through municipalities, they need to be done through Metrolinx.”

While acknowledging that Queen’s Park doesn’t need municipal approvals for taxes or tolls, Stintz warned against excluding city representatives.

“We’ve seen transit plans don’t survive municipal elections,” she said.

Kicking municipal politicians off the Metrolinx board nearly three years ago was supposed to speed up transit improvements. Instead they were slowed when new Toronto Mayor Rob Ford re-negotiated the Transit City plan with the province.

“We need to find a model that we can continue to have municipal input into the plan, continue to have regular buy-in to priorities, and if we’re going to have a revenue strategy so we can sell it to the public and make sure they’re on board,” Stintz told reporters.

Metrolinx officials were not available for comment Monday afternoon.

In her speech she referred to Vancouver’s Mayor’s Council as a potential model for regional transit approvals. She also noted that on Wednesday councillors on the transit commission are expected to approve a report that will set the stage for including private citizens on the TTC board.

York Region chair Bill Fisch, who attended Monday’s speech, was on the Metrolinx board until it went to private sector members. He agreed politicians should have a place at the Metrolinx table.

“I suggested to the province they were making a mistake and some members of the board should be politicians. They needed that perspective. I thought three, four or five at the most would be great,” he said. “I’d be happy to serve if asked.”

Stintz said she plans to restore pride in the TTC while making it more efficient, despite a planned fare increase and service cuts in the new year.

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“We need to be more strategic in figuring out where our ridership is actually growing and make sure that the services are meeting where the ridership is. We might have to make some adjustments to respond to that ridership. We know we have the ridership on Finch, Dufferin and Don Mills, but we may not have the same kind of record ridership in other areas of the city. I think we just need to be more thoughtful and more strategic about where we put our service,” she said.

But gone are the days when the TTC planned to provide service and figure out later how to pay for it. The city’s TTC operating subsidy grew from $225 million to $450 million between 2005 and 2009 and cash fares increased 35 per cent during the same period, Stintz said.

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