GO-Metrolinx merger aims to speed projects
Mar 31, 2009 04:30 AM
ROB FERGUSON
TESS KALINOWSKI
STAFF REPORTERS
In a bid to speed up transit improvements in the Toronto region, the province has evicted all municipal politicians from the board of Metrolinx and merged the transportation planning agency with GO Transit.
Integrating GO with the planning expertise at Metrolinx will help get “shovels in the ground” faster on projects, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said.
“All you have to do is get on our roadways at the present time and crawl along to see what it’s like to understand the need for these projects moving forward,” Bradley told reporters.
While the takeover of GO has been anticipated since the province set up Metrolinx in 2006, the replacement of politicians on the board with finance, planning and GO board experts suggests that Queen’s Park had grown impatient with the board’s progress on such issues as public-private partnerships and the implementation of a regional fare card.
Former Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac will continue as part-time Metrolinx board chair under legislation unveiled yesterday while remaining as head of Mohawk College in Hamilton.
But Toronto Mayor David Miller and TTC chair Adam Giambrone, along with six other region chairs and mayors, will be replaced by experts more “geared” to getting transit lines built, Bradley said.
Hired as an adviser to lead the transition to the new board is outgoing Torstar Corp. chief executive Robert Prichard. Prichard steps down from Torstar, parent company of the Toronto Star, on May 6.
Bradley said the new law, called the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Transit Implementation Act, would provide more integrated transit service around the region. Municipal transit systems like the TTC will not be included.
Insiders said the new board structure will limit “turf wars” between politicians protecting their local interests and hampering better links between municipal transit systems.
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, who is among the ousted board members, said the board didn’t have enough authority.
“You need an independent board to make the decisions that have to be made for the good of the people,” she said. “That’s who we’re here to serve. They’ll have a board with power that can get the job done.”
At a Feb. 17 Toronto Star editorial board meeting, Miller had warned “it would be really unwise strategically” to remove politicians from the Metrolinx board.
“We understand the connections between transportation and planning and the provincial government and environmental objectives. It’s a unique skill set that nobody from the private sector could have,” Miller said. [...]
