QUOTED: Josh Matlow on Doug Ford’s fairy-tale approach to transit funding

I know that some councillors slip into the divisive rhetoric with promises of building subways and delivering unicorns to every child. I know it’s controversial … but I’m just tired of a false debate of ‘let’s build things!’

—Councillor Josh Matlow, comparing the likelihood of building a subway without a transit expansion fund to that of gifting kids with creatures that don’t exist (amounting to a jab at Doug Ford, who strongly opposes levying new road tolls to pay for transit). Matlow, who’s backed by transit rogue TTC Chair Karen Stintz, wants to bring tolls and regional sales taxes to next month’s council agenda, with a view to creating a permanent fund to bankroll transit projects. This isn’t the first time the rookie councillor has floated the contentious idea, either—as the Globe and Mail points out, he failed to get council’s support for tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner last fall. However, Matlow believes this time will be different because “the appetite is much larger now to get real about funding.” That, or the city’s getting embarrassed for lagging behind notoriously gridlocked Los Angeles. [National Post]