Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Special transit meeting: Council rejects Mayor Rob Ford’s proposal to postpone

Council has rejected Mayor Rob Ford’s attempt to defer the transit vote for a month.

In a last-ditch bid to stave off a likely defeat, Ford proposed an expert panel to study the issue and report back to council. But many councillors said they already had sufficient information, and council voted 24-19 against the proposal.

The final vote on TTC chair Karen Stintz’s proposal is still to come, but the first vote is an ominous sign for Ford. He has not been seen in the council chamber since.

Earlier, Stintz offered a goodwill gesture to Ford, even though his allies had already suggested they would probably reject her plan if it was put to a vote.

The special meeting was called to provide Metrolinx with clarity on how Toronto wants to spend $8.4 billion in provincial transit funding.

Ford wants a subway on Sheppard and wants the Eglinton LRT to run underground from Black Creek Dr. to Kennedy Station. It would come above-ground in only a couple of spots, including at the Don Valley.

Stintz wants to return to a plan that would see above-ground LRT on Eglinton between Kennedy and Laird Dr., and street-level tracks on Sheppard and Finch.

But, in an olive branch to the mayor, she has amended her proposal slightly to defer a decision on Sheppard to an outside panel of experts to recommend the mode of transit best suited to that corridor.

“Given that was the mayor’s campaign commitment we do think as a council it was important that we support the mayor in that commitment and we allow further time and further options to find funding for Sheppard,” Stintz told reporters.

If the east end of Eglinton were built above ground between Laird Dr. and Kennedy Station, that would potentially free up $1.9 billion. Some of that would go to Finch and up to $650 million would be available for Sheppard, she said. That would free up $330 million in matching federal funding, bringing the total available for Sheppard to about $1 billion.

That money could be used to either extend the Sheppard subway, built surface light rail, or build a combination of the two.

Sheppard is the street on which the mayor has pledged to build a subway with shovels in the ground within the next three years before his term expires.

As recently as yesterday, he rejected Stintz’s compromise proposal. But, she said, it was still in her plan before council because she thinks it’s fair and she believes councillors who support the mayor might be able to get behind the compromise.

The panel would take until March 31 to bring back its recommendation — an extension over an earlier Feb. 21 deadline that some felt wasn’t enough time to properly consider the matter. Among those who would be approached to make a recommendation are Ford’s point man on Sheppard financing, Gordon Chong; representatives of Metrolinx, the TTC, Toronto CivicAlliance, the Toronto Board of Trade; Eric Miller, director of the Cities Centre at U of T; and former mayor David Crombie.

If it goes to a vote, councillors on Stintz’s side admit it will be tight. Only 24 of 43 city councillors signed a petition to bring the matter before the special meeting of council. It’s also possible that Ford’s allies could defer the transit decision to a later meeting.

One of the mayor’s loyalists, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who sits on the TTC, says Stintz’s gesture on Sheppard is “problematic and ill conceived.”

“It’s questionable whether you’d get a real honest, balanced report. A majority of the representatives have already voiced their opinions and that would bias any outcomes,” he said.

There needs to be a discussion of Chong’s preliminary report at executive committee next week before further action is decided, said Minnan-Wong. Chong’s report, which leaked last week, suggests that any plan to privately finance a Sheppard subway would fall short by about $1 billion.

“I support the existing plan. I support the mayor’s plan. I think subways are the way to go. Thirty, 40 years from now we’ll look at it and we’ll say we made the right decision,” he said.

TTC vice-chair Councillor Peter Milczyn said he’d go with council’s will, although he doesn’t believe that even if the east end of the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT is built on the road, there will be enough money left to build Sheppard and Finch, too.

“The one issue with Sheppard is we’ve got a third of a subway line now. Councillor Stintz says look at completing it between Yonge and Downsview. There’s all kinds of reasons for doing that,” he said.

Milczyn suggested that the enormous rift on council is partly the fault of Metrolinx, which is asking council to clarify which plan the city thinks is best. The provincial agency agreed to what is now the Stintz plan in 2009, and then last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Mayor Rob Ford, essentially contradicting that agreement (which also remains in effect).

“We’ve got a mish-mash in front of us today. It would be good if Metrolinx really lived up to its promise of being the regional transit planning and delivery agency, because otherwise we always descend into these parochial fights,” he said.

Milczyn also left the door open to Stintz’s survival as chair of the TTC. It has been widely speculated that Stintz will soon be voted off the board by the majority of the commissioners who are loyal to the mayor.

“I support Karen as TTC chair and I support Gary Webster as chief general manager of the TTC as well. Karen is doing her job with integrity. That counts for a lot. (Webster) is a very solid manager there and there’s no need to change course,” he said.

But Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti was adamant that he won’t support any plan to build LRT on Finch because he believes his community wants a subway and the TTC has failed to look for private funding to help build one.

Putting light rail on Finch will kill off the struggling businesses that are surviving there, he told reporters.

“Every time we try to talk about public private partnerships they shut us down. We want a subway. Give us an opportunity,” he said.

In answer to Mammoliti’s questions at the council meeting, however, Webster said the TTC and Metrolinx had studied which routes had the best potential for alternative funding arrangements, and Finch was not among them.

Original Article
Source: Star 
Author: Tess Kalinowski, Paul Moloney 

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