Provincial Liberals blame Rob Ford for GTA transit woes; we admire the province’s chutzpah
As they gear up for the October election, the provincial Liberals have devised a simple plan: reduce their vulnerability to attacks on everything that’s gone wrong in Ontario over the last eight years. Their latest tactic is to try and deflect responsibility for the GTA’s transit woes by blaming municipal governments for not having clear transit plans.
According to the Toronto Star, Liberal MPP Bob Chiarelli singled out one city politician in particular:
The problem lies with municipalities like Toronto and politicians like Mayor Rob Ford that decide how to spend billions of dollars in cheques signed by the province for improved public transit to get cars off the roads, Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli said Tuesday.
“We’ve just seen in the city of Toronto a new mayor come in and want to … significantly re-do the priorities that had been set under a period of years,” he told a news conference held to boast about improvements to Ontario’s infrastructure since the Liberals took power in 2003.
“Our money’s been on the table, our money has adjusted to the circumstances.”
Now, we won’t spend a lot of time defending Mayor Ford’s decision to replace Transit City with a system that will cost more to move fewer people. But for the Liberal government to try and wash their hands of transit planning is more than a little cheeky. First off, Metrolinx isn’t a municipal responsibility, and it’s not as though GO users glide effortlessly to and from work every day on seats made of candy. (Which, in the summer heat, is probably for the best.) Moreover, Ford was only elected last October—how much does the province really have to crow about on the transit file for the seven years before that?
But we have to raise particular objection to Chiarelli’s assertion that the Ontario government “respected the municipalities’ autonomy.” Sure, the Ontario government respects the government of Toronto’s autonomy. Except when it comes to zoning decisions or, for that matter, anything that goes to the OMB, or the two-thirds of municipal spending mandated by provincial legislation. Yup, Queen’s Park is all about local democracy and planning.
• Fed up with traffic gridlock? Not our fault, Liberals say [Toronto Star]
• Province blames Ford, cities for gridlock problem [Globe and Mail]
(Images: Queen’s Park, Jason Spaceman; City Hall, Robert Scarth)
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/queens-park-blames-municipalities/&title=Provincial Liberals blame Rob Ford for GTA transit woes; we admire the province’s chutzpah&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/qp-vs-city-hall-624x355.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_79859" align="aligncenter" width="656" caption="The provincial Liberals are accusing "][/caption]
As they gear up for the October election, the provincial Liberals have devised a simple plan: reduce their vulnerability to attacks on everything that’s gone wrong in Ontario over the last eight years. Their latest tactic is to try and deflect responsibility for the GTA’s transit woes by blaming municipal governments for not having clear transit plans.
According to the Toronto Star, Liberal MPP Bob Chiarelli singled out one city politician in particular:
The problem lies with municipalities like Toronto and politicians like Mayor Rob Ford that decide how to spend billions of dollars in cheques signed by the province for improved public transit to get cars off the roads, Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli said Tuesday.
“We’ve just seen in the city of Toronto a new mayor come in and want to … significantly re-do the priorities that had been set under a period of years,” he told a news conference held to boast about improvements to Ontario’s infrastructure since the Liberals took power in 2003.
“Our money’s been on the table, our money has adjusted to the circumstances.”
Now, we won’t spend a lot of time defending Mayor Ford’s decision to replace Transit City with a system that will cost more to move fewer people. But for the Liberal government to try and wash their hands of transit planning is more than a little cheeky. First off, Metrolinx isn’t a municipal responsibility, and it’s not as though GO users glide effortlessly to and from work every day on seats made of candy. (Which, in the summer heat, is probably for the best.) Moreover, Ford was only elected last October—how much does the province really have to crow about on the transit file for the seven years before that?
But we have to raise particular objection to Chiarelli’s assertion that the Ontario government “respected the municipalities’ autonomy.” Sure, the Ontario government respects the government of Toronto’s autonomy. Except when it comes to zoning decisions or, for that matter, anything that goes to the OMB, or the two-thirds of municipal spending mandated by provincial legislation. Yup, Queen’s Park is all about local democracy and planning.
• Fed up with traffic gridlock? Not our fault, Liberals say [Toronto Star]
• Province blames Ford, cities for gridlock problem [Globe and Mail]
(Images: Queen’s Park, Jason Spaceman; City Hall, Robert Scarth)){kind=link}
As if Tories are going to help the transit infrastructure in Ontario.
Remember last time? The 407? BC was smart enough to actually get their toll highway back after it was paid for, but not with smarty pants conservatives like Tony Clement (look it up, he was Ontario Transit Minister too), nope 407 is here to stay and an expensive stretch of highway that no one will take in order to reduce 401 congestion.
Even worse Rob Ford just removed SCARBOROUGH bike lanes. Ever cycled in Scarborough? I don’t recommend it and Mr. Ford is just making it worse.
So both the current Toronto govt and the provincial Tories have failed transit in the past. My prediction? They fail transit and transportation infrastructure in the future too.
I hope they privatize the 401.
Let’s also inform everyone about the first time an Eglinton line was attempted; the Conservative government cancelled the project in 1995 upon coming to power, after construction had already started on a tunnel at Eglinton West station (the planned interchange), and forced the hole to be filled in. Is that really the kind of thing we want to see again to transit projects, to have them literally become giant money pits that get buried and asphalted over? I’m dreading what may become of the current transit initiatives if Hudak gets in and makes the same kind of “executive” decisions as Ford already has while in office.
Re: AE’s pointing out that Toronto Council (not just Ford) got rid of the bike lanes in Scarborough. Those lanes were rammed through without any consultation by previous City Councillor Adrian Heaps. The fact that he rammed those lanes through without consultation was probably THE NUMBER 1 reason why he lost the last municipal election. Those bike lanes were RARELY USED and significantly increased traffic congestion in those areas.