New Transit Funding Sources

[TOareaFan]

It happened in the early 1980's when the party in power had 52% of the seats and 44% of the vote - but the rules were changed to make constitutional change nearly impossible.
Maybe Toronto can separate and then have some bargaining power to re-join confederation.

I like the idea of Toronto separating and becoming its own province....it would mean Toronto would be the only province of the, now, 11 that did not have an airport capable of commercial jet landings....maybe that would lead to the runway expansion at Billy Bishop so that the C Series jets can land there and jobs will be created/maintained in Quebec.....perhaps that would be enough for Quebec to support the creation of the Province of Toronto.....of course there would be tough negotiations on the sale of Queen's Park from the Province of Ontario to the Province of Toronto since Ontario would have to move their seat of government to, say, somewhere in Mississauga.

The YUS line would be cool because it would become an inter-provincial subway line....that has to be relatively rare around the world...no?

 

[ShonTron]

I like the idea of Toronto separating and becoming its own province....it would mean Toronto would be the only province of the, now, 11 that did not have an airport capable of commercial jet landings....maybe that would lead to the runway expansion at Billy Bishop so that the C Series jets can land there and jobs will be created/maintained in Quebec.....perhaps that would be enough for Quebec to support the creation of the Province of Toronto.....of course there would be tough negotiations on the sale of Queen's Park from the Province of Ontario to the Province of Toronto since Ontario would have to move their seat of government to, say, somewhere in Mississauga.

The YUS line would be cool because it would become an inter-provincial subway line....that has to be relatively rare around the world...no?

There are several interstate heavy rail transit lines in the US - the Washington Metro (Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia), PATH (New York and New Jersey), PATCO (Pennsylvania and New Jersey), as well as one light rail line, the St. Louis Metro (Missouri and Illinois). Not to mention many interstate commuter rail lines (MARC, VRE, NJ Transit, SEPTA, MBTA, Metra, NICTD, Metro-North).

 

[Leo_Chan]

Wouldn't it be easier to just "shrink" Ontario so that the northern parts were taken by Manitoba (or Quebec, but French).

 

[kEiThZ]

It would be time to declare the Greater Toronto Area a separate province.

Never going to to happen. The rest of Ontario may complain but they know who pays the bills. And they aren't going to let the cash cow become a free agent. Not to mention that the other provinces aren't going to happily go along with the idea of creating another have-not province (the rest of Ontario).

Good luck bringing a constitutional change to Canada.

Exactly. I think people forget how this works. Just because Torontonians want it, that doesn't mean the rest of Canada would.

On top of all that, the province of Toronto would be making significant annual transfer payments, being the top "have" province now (taking that slot from Alberta) and Old Ontario would be on the receiving end of a good chunk of those transfer payments. Financially, little would be achieved.

The GTA already pays for the rest of Canada. Not much would change.

Old article. But not much has changed here:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...t-for-confederation-in-ontario/article743713/

Wouldn't it be easier to just "shrink" Ontario so that the northern parts were taken by Manitoba (or Quebec, but French).

Why would Manitoba want more have-not areas to burden them? And on top of that spread over another time zone.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Here's an excellent article on the current lack of funding facing New York City's public transit system. See link on

Robert Moses and the decline of the NYC subway system
Tracing the current state of emergency back to the Power Broker

New Yorkers now use a transit system in a state of emergency. The past few months have laid bare the enormity of the problems currently facing the century-old subways, from aging infrastructure to a lack of federal dollars available to help make things better.

Much has also been said about how the world’s largest public transportation system has gotten so bad—the lack of funding, of course, but also Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s penchant for prioritizing flashy projects over system maintenance, along with years of mismanagement within the MTA, an agency that’s admitted to misspent funding that doesn’t go toward maintenance.

But start looking at the decline of, and disinvestment in, New York’s rail lines—from the subway to commuter rails like the Long Island Rail Road—and you’ll find that those problems go back much, much further. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, they seem to lead to one man in particular: Robert Moses.

Moses was known as the great “master builder” of 20th-century New York, whose machinations helped create the city’s highway system, as well as many of its parks, beaches, pools, and bridges. But one thing’s for certain: He had absolutely no interest in public transit. He prioritized roadways and cars at the expense of subways and buses, a move that left a detrimental impact on the transit system that continues to this day....

 

[ssiguy2]

Toronto leaving Ontario means that Ontario would have to become 4 provinces........GTA/North/East/SW. Toronto not only is in the middle of the population but also dissects it. You can't have province where going to the capitol means having to go thru a another province. Kingston and London are the natural capitol city choices for the East & South West but the North would be more difficult to determine.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I imagine it would go to Tbay. Not like it matters, its sheer fantasy land.

 

[TOareaFan]

Toronto leaving Ontario means that Ontario would have to become 4 provinces........GTA/North/East/SW. Toronto not only is in the middle of the population but also dissects it. You can't have province where going to the capitol means having to go thru a another province. Kingston and London are the natural capitol city choices for the East & South West but the North would be more difficult to determine.

Oh, so the Province of Toronto is taking the GTA/905 with them? Do we get a say in that?

 

[W. K. Lis]

Oh, so the Province of Toronto is taking the GTA/905 with them? Do we get a say in that?

Berlin is its own city state within Germany. See link and link. Around the world, there are other more or less "city states". See link.

 

[kEiThZ]

Oh, so the Province of Toronto is taking the GTA/905 with them? Do we get a say in that?

Realistically, if the province ever broke up, what benefit would there for the 905 to stay out of the "Province of Toronto"? The GTA is economically, politically and even culturally tied to Toronto. Why would they want to be on the outside?

Berlin is its own city state within Germany.

As is common with capital cities around the world. The Ottawa-Gatineau NCC should be a territory in my opinion. Unfortunately, politics being such, that's about as likely as Toronto and Southern Ontario going back to the old boundaries of Upper Canada.