Cross-posted from Eye Daily.
The TTC launched its promised public consultation campaign yesterday. Have something to say about possible cuts to bus routes and maybe even the Sheppard Subway line? Click here to take the online survey. It’s quick and relatively easy, though some are arguing that the questions are questionable.
Torontoist commenters have pointed out that when the survey asks what you would do if fares were increased or routes were cut, walking and biking aren’t presented as options. And as the Globe and Mail reports, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has already deemed the questionnaire “a shameless attempt at manipulation in order to get a trumped up answer.†No doubt this particular question rubbed him the wrong way:
6. The TTC is facing significant financial pressures. What do you feel is the best way for the TTC to deal with the funding gap? (Select all that apply)
• Have the City of Toronto raise taxes to provide additional funding
• Raise fares
• Reduce service
Writes Jeff Gray at the Globe and Mail: Allies of the mayor acknowledge privately the 10-question survey, launched yesterday with pamphlets and online at ttc.ca, is part of a larger “public education” strategy designed to rev up support for the new taxes, which Mr. Miller argues are vital to the city’s fiscal future.
As Torontoist writer Jonathan Goldsbie reports, there’s a TTC policy that prevents cuts to routes without public consultation. When I spoke to TTC Chair Adam Giambrone back in July, he told me that the consultation works to prevent routes from being eliminated.
“We refused to make cuts at TTC because that would be bad,†he said, “but one of the things that is very important is that we’ve never made cuts without consultation. Why? Because when consultation occurs all hell breaks lose with politicians from all policial stripes and they prevent cuts to the TTC. We need to keep [this policy] there so that it’s almost impossible to ever cut the TTC.â€
250,000 brochures that include the survey will also be handed out at transit stations and on buses, streetcars and subways themselves. You can read more about the survey at the National Post, the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star and the CBC.
