Toronto should appoint a traffic and critical transportation infrastructure czar to cut out politics and keep their eye on the big picture.
Move over affordable housing, public safety, and the absolute disaster that is Toronto’s finances. Make space—a lot—for two issues that will define this upcoming Mayoral race: traffic congestion and public transportation.
Sadly, on this score, candidates have spent a great deal of time acting like Captain Obvious. We already know that congestion in this city is nothing short of nightmarish, that Toronto traffic is — in fact — some of the worst in the entire world. That it is horrific for our economy, dreadful for the environment, a disaster for families and a danger to every soul brave enough to venture, well, anywhere in this city.
While they profess platitudes, purporting to share our frustration, they are woefully thin on (forgive the expression) concrete solutions.
So, what’s needed?
For my tax dollar, the answer lies in turning our minds, painful as it is, to the failures of two of the largest and most controversial public transportation projects of late: the plagued, mislaid (literally) Eglinton crosstown LRT and the long-delayed Union Station redevelopment.
Back in 2010, the city cancelled David Miller’s Transit City. Why? Rob Ford made good on his campaign pledge to scrap the project and redirect funds for a Scarborough subway.
Despite their personal animosity, then Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Rob Ford, out of political necessity, temporarily laid down their swords and agreed to a new funding plan. Ontario would pick up 100 per cent of the cost of the new Eglinton Crosstown line, conveniently serving a swath of ridings held by the provincial Liberals. In return, Toronto would pick up 100 per cent of the tab to rejuvenate and expand the most critical transit hub in the country, Union Station.
As everyone who lives, works and commiserates knows, both projects were eye-wateringly over budget and hopelessly over time. Though Union Station is now finally transformed, the new 17 km Eglinton Crosstown line is full of recriminations and threatened suits and countersuits — full of everything but transit riders.
We don’t need to get any further into the history of these sagas, as most Ontarians are already maddeningly familiar, to understand that political imperatives have delayed our vital infrastructure.
Today, due to short-term, narrowly partisan decision-making, our city finds itself in a perilous situation and yet the solution is crystal clear: we simply must remove politics from the equation. And the best way to do that is to appoint a traffic and critical transportation infrastructure czar.
If this proposal sounds familiar, it’s because we already have a lightweight version of this in the City’s Transit Expansion office led by Derrick Toigo. Never heard of him? That’s no surprise. Although his mandate is to accelerate transit projects, minimizing overall disruption is not. In other words, the role is full of talk about ‘working across’ levels of government and ‘breaking down’ silos but has achieved minimal results — as the city’s insane congestion plainly testifies.
So what’s needed is something far stronger, an office with unique powers to develop a long-term transportation strategy focused not only on getting projects built, but keeping the city moving amidst the necessary disruption that accompanies their construction. And its North Star should be reducing gridlock, not winning votes.
To work, this position must be a long-term appointment, and the appointee should also be blessed by all three levels of government who provide the necessary funding.
The bottom line is that Toronto’s traffic and transit problems will not be solved without pain in the short-term. Torontonians get that. But what we cannot and should not abide is pain that is all for naught, pain created by political opportunism.
So, when asked by mayoral candidates for my two cents, here’s my answer: we need a dedicated traffic/transportation czar who can cut through the politics, keep their eye on the big picture and keep our city moving.
This article first appeared in the Toronto Star on May 15, 2023.
