{"id":42677,"date":"2013-03-25T11:17:51","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T15:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=42677"},"modified":"2013-03-26T11:32:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T15:32:45","slug":"lorinc-andrea-horwath-and-ndp-miss-the-bus-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/25\/lorinc-andrea-horwath-and-ndp-miss-the-bus-again\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Andrea Horwath and NDP miss the bus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

During her brief and uninformative performance at the Toronto Region Board of Trade this morning, NDP leader Andrea Horwath did nothing to dispel the growing sense that her party hasn\u2019t got a clue when it comes to the GTA\u2019s transit debate.<\/p>\n

In a speech and the scrum that followed, Horwath \u2014 who also got a grilling on Metro Morning last week \u2014 stuck to a very slightly modified version of her reveal-nothing position on the looming Metrolinx investment strategy, which, in a nutshell, looks like this: She doesn\u2019t like tolls or other revenue tools that would burden working families. She wants to find a \u201cfair and balanced approach\u201d \u2014 no details given, except opposition to road tolls \u2014 that likely includes more corporate taxes and possibly higher income taxes on higher earners. And she wants to read the report when it comes out in May before revealing her hand.<\/p>\n

On the crucial question of whether she would earmark government revenues for transit, Horwarth\u2019s hedge seems to be, a dedicated tax stream if necessary, but not necessarily dedicated regional taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn big projects like this, if people aren\u2019t behind it, you create such a backlash, an ugly situation, that you can\u2019t move forward,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a hurry up type of process.\u201d [my emphasis added]<\/em><\/p>\n

Huh? Has she taken the TTC at rush hour recently?<\/p>\n

As it happens, Horwath had a highly revealing answer to that question. After becoming leader, she says she spent two whole days riding the TTC and came away from what can only be described as one of the shortest political fact-finding tours I\u2019ve ever encountered with a determination to not repeat the experience. She is, however, prepared to rag the puck. How\u2019s that for empathy for the working folks?<\/p>\n

Horwath, of course, refutes any suggestion that the NDP has come late and unprepared to the GTA\u2019s transit debate. \u201cWe\u2019re very serious about this, not only for Toronto but all of the province,\u201d she said, citing the NDP\u2019s pledge to cover half of the TTC\u2019s operating shortfall during the last provincial election. \u201cWe want to go forward in a way that gains some consensus so people can get behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to name what she regards as the highest priority project in the city, Horwath seemed to indicate that politics \u2014 and not sound transit planning \u2014 has been the NDP\u2019s guide: \u201cI think it\u2019s those neighbourhoods in the outskirts of this city that aren\u2019t receiving the transit they need.\u201d When a reporter asked about the Downtown Relief Line, she replied: \u201cI think it\u2019s a mugs game to try to divide this city in terms of who needs transit more. We have to address all of these concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds to me like the NDP leader thinks the DRL is all about relieving congestion for downtowners. Maybe she needs to turn off the Ford\u2019s radio show and realize the value of the line in Scarborough and North York.<\/p>\n

Horwath, of course, is negotiating with Premier Kathleen Wynne about the terms and conditions of her support for a forthcoming provincial budget and the current government, so she\u2019s definitely not in policy mode.<\/p>\n

Still, the NDP\u2019s conspicuous lack of engagement on the transit file, outside of supporting the Clean Train Coalition’s goal of electrifying the airport rail link, is nothing less than perplexing, especially given that it\u2019s critical for her to hold on to downtown NDP ridings with high transit ridership \u2014 Davenport, Parkdale High Park and Toronto Danforth.<\/p>\n

Horwath\u2019s studied vagueness comes on the heels of Olivia Chow\u2019s equally non-committal position on the use of dedicated revenue tools, as reported here last week in the run-up to the\u00a0federal budget [PDF].<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, Finance minister Jim Flaherty announced that the budget would include a total infrastructure envelope of $53 billion over ten years \u2013 a number that includes new measures such as extending the program to ten years from seven (important for long-term projects) and indexing the $2 billion\/year gas tax to inflation.<\/p>\n

According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which praised the measures, Ottawa\u2019s average annual infrastructure outlay will be $1.4 billion per year, which is slightly more than the $1.25 billion average over the past seven (see Department of Finance chart attached). The budget also renewed $380 million for affordable housing, as well as homelessness programs based on the Housing First strategy pioneered here by David Miller\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

After the Tories tabled the budget, Chow \u2014 in her role as transportation critic for the Official Opposition, as opposed to a putative mayoral candidate \u2014 released a table claiming the budget slashes over $1 billion a year from infrastructure<\/a>. But some of the programs she claims have been discontinued had already reached the end of their lifecycle, while others were part of the elevated level of infrastructure funding approved as part of the stimulus meant to counter the 2009 recession.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a municipal point of view,\u201d the FCM says, \u201cthe budget maintains and slightly increases the annual value of expiring federal infrastructure programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chow and Horwath, of course, have a parliamentary duty to criticize the regimes in power. But the chorus of Torontonians who are waiting for specific alternatives \u2014 proposition, not opposition \u2014 is growing with each passing day, and with each rush-hour subway train that\u2019s too full to take on more passengers.<\/p>\n

Maybe if Horwath spent more than two cursory days riding the rails with the common folk and reading Ed Levy\u2019s ebook on the politics of transit paralysis,<\/a> she\u2019d understand the time for difficult political decisions is upon us.<\/p>\n

photo by Shabzillaa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During her brief and uninformative performance at the Toronto Region Board of Trade this morning, NDP leader Andrea Horwath did nothing to dispel the growing sense that her party hasn\u2019t got a clue when it comes to the GTA\u2019s transit debate. In a speech and the scrum that followed, Horwath \u2014 who also got aContinue reading “LORINC: Andrea Horwath and NDP miss the bus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":42668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-transit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: Andrea Horwath and NDP miss the bus - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/03\/25\/lorinc-andrea-horwath-and-ndp-miss-the-bus-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Andrea Horwath and NDP miss the bus - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During her brief and uninformative performance at the Toronto Region Board of Trade this morning, NDP leader Andrea Horwath did nothing to dispel the growing sense that her party hasn\u2019t got a clue when it comes to the GTA\u2019s transit debate. 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