kEiThZ
Superstar
That's taking the security argument too far. If the military had its way, they'd simply move all militar personnel outside of the Ottawa core. Anyway, the military isn't responsible for the security of all public infrastructure. Nor are they responsible for building subway. And nor are tunnelled subways necessarily more secure. (On a side note you might want to actually look up the roles and responsibilities of the CF).
The economic argument is only partially accurate. Ottawa is the commercial centre for all of eastern Ontario. It also has a fair sized high-tech sector. Not all economic activity in Ottawa is entirely dependent on the federal public sector. And regardless, if we are going to basing things on economic growth, then why spend much on the 416? Most of the GTA's economic and population growth is happening in the 905. If this is the line of reasoning, isn't that where the money should go? Obviously, we wouldn't want that. Sometimes you have to spend to strenghten the core network.
And that's exactly what Ottawa is doing. They are using transit money to strengthen the "bones" of the system if you will. And yet they are being penalized for that approach. One wonders if they would have been better off proposing a streetcar to every ward like Toronto and then having the province hack away a few chunks.
Anyway, I bring up Ottawa precisely because there are people on here who think that Toronto is somehow not getting special treatment under the current government. Compare Toronto' situation under the current government to Ottawa. Toronto get's a huge subway extension, a fully refurbished and extended grade separated LRT and another at-grade LRT for not much of its own money. Ottawa on the other hand has gotten a mere few km of BRT (that it has had to fund in part at least) and is being asked to pitch in a third of the cost for what amounts to an upgrade to an existing transit route. You can bet they'll want more. Their leaders are already asking for the same deal as Toronto.
And that brings me to my point. If Miller makes this about Toronto. That's exactly what it'll become. A bun fight between Toronto and every other major city in Ontario and every neighbouring suburb. He should be articulating how these transit cuts impact every community and demonstrating how cutting back in the 416 in particular hurts our neighbours. He should be showing some leadership and speaking out against the cuts more broadly. If he chooses to make it about Transit City so be it. But he shouldn't be surprised when sooner or later other municipalities wake up to the fact that they've gotten disproportionately screwed under this round of cuts and they start asking why Toronto isn't suffering as much (relatively speaking).
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