Mayoral candidates Olivia Chow, David Soknacki and Karen Stintz applaud the TTC’s proposals for improved bus and streetcar service. John Tory says the TTC is irresponsible for introducing an expensive package of policies without a funding plan.

The nine improvements, to be considered by the TTC board Tuesday, would reduce wait times and overcrowding, expand the network of express buses and reverse cuts to night and weekend service. But they come with a cost: $288 million in capital purchases between 2015 and 2019, plus $65 million per year in operating expenses as of 2018.

Tory noted that he has himself proposed some of the options on the list, such as “queue-jump” right-turn lanes to help buses skip ahead of traffic. But he criticized the TTC for not explaining how to cover the bill.

“I just think you can’t run big organizations that way, whether it be the TTC or the government,” he said. “We can’t anymore. Where you have reports that are put forward talking about things that could be done, with a big price tag, but with no idea whatsoever as to how they’re going to be paid for.”

Stintz, the former chair of the TTC, said the report is standard: the TTC sets priorities, she said, and council then decides if and how to fund them.

“It’s what we do all the time,” she said. “Again, if John Tory knew council a bit better, he would understand this is exactly how things get done here.”

Chow said improving bus service is the only way to quickly ease commutes for a “very modest” cost. Tory and incumbent Rob Ford, she said, have only long-term “schemes that require millions and millions, actually billions, of dollars.”

“Every time that we mention that we need to invest, improve the services now, what Mr. Rob Ford and Mr. John Tory say: ‘Oh no, we can’t do that.’ Well, that’s just not acceptable. We have to do something now,” she said.

Chow spokesman Jamey Heath later clarified that she does not necessarily support each of the proposals. She is not, he said, endorsing the most costly proposed change: two-hour “time-based transfers,” which would mean an estimated $20 million per year in lost fares.

Ford said he supports most of the proposals, though some of them are explicitly intended to counter his own budget cuts. He said he opposes both time-based transfers and proof-of-payment streetcar boarding.

“I have a major problem with the honour system,” he said. “I don’t believe it’s going to work effectively.”

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Chow would not say how she would pay for the improvements she does favour. Soknacki said he would phase in the changes to save money and look for efficiencies in the city budget — but then raise fares and taxes if necessary.

“I’m one of the few, perhaps the only, candidate that’s not afraid of saying that if we want the city we all say we want, we’re going to have to pay for it. And we’re going to have to pay for it through taxes, through user fees,” he said.

With files from Betsy Powell

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