{"id":8421,"date":"2009-12-21T12:22:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=8421"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:11:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:11:52","slug":"john-lorinc-rocco-rossi-on-public-transit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/12\/21\/john-lorinc-rocco-rossi-on-public-transit\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN LORINC: Rocco Rossi on public transit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4045\/4185571021_1c2ce343c2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"John Lorinc\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/images\/feature-graphics\/feature-lorinc.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"85\" \/><\/p>\n<p>LeDrew, two?<\/p>\n<p>In the week since Rocco Rossi joined the mayoral race as a potential spoiler, there&#8217;s been much speculation about whether he represents something more substantive than <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stephen_LeDrew\">Stephen LeDrew<\/a>, another former Liberal Party bagman who made a spectacle of himself in the 2006 race.<\/p>\n<p>After Rossi&#8217;s kick-off, one right-of-centre councilor came away unpersuaded that he&#8217;s different than the other backroomers &#8212; LeDrew, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tom_Long_%28politician%29\">Tom Long<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Tory\">John Tory<\/a> &#8212; who believed they could make the transition from handler to handled.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m prepared to reserve judgment&#8230;but not for long. On the weekend, I spoke with Rossi about transit and came away with the impression of someone who&#8217;s got a lot of homework to do. After all, an ostensibly serious candidate shouldn&#8217;t be learning the issues on the campaign trail, much less in office.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about his views on <a href=\"http:\/\/transitcity.ca\">Transit City<\/a>, Rossi demurred, saying he needs to further inform himself of the city&#8217;s plans.<\/p>\n<p>He talked in general terms about the need to integrate the TTC&#8217;s plans with those of Metrolinx, and ranted about David Miller&#8217;s bid to get Ottawa to pay for the new streetcars using stimulus funds. (The City and infrastructure minister John Baird managed to work out a solution.)<\/p>\n<p>TTC expansion, he added, &#8220;should be done with the regional perspective in mind.&#8221; Asked if he would rule out re-visiting the Transit City strategy, Rossi replied: &#8220;I don&#8217;t rule out anything until I&#8217;ve seen the whole picture.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Which is this: In July, the Province informed the City that Metrolinx will &#8220;invest in and retain ownership and control&#8221; of the new LRT lines (Finch West, Eglinton, and Sheppard, as well as the reconstructed Scarborough RT). <em><strong>View a PDF of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolinx.com\/Docs\/Agendas\/Jul13_09\/Agenda_Item8-Attachment_to_Provincial_Framework_Report-A-Letter_to_City_of_Toronto.pdf\">the letter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Then, last month, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalpost.com\/related\/links\/story.html?id=2230388\">Metrolinx said it was considering private sector partners<\/a> to construct the projects with an eye to completing them in time for the Pan Am Games.<\/p>\n<p>Given his promise to privatize Toronto Hydro, I&#8217;m guessing Rossi won&#8217;t be averse to such schemes. Nor, I&#8217;d predict, will a Liberal insider, albeit aligned to the national scene, use an election campaign to crap all over the McGuinty government&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolinx.com\/thebigmove\/brochure\/page11.aspx\">Big Move strategy for transit expansion<\/a> in Greater Toronto. (Leave that task to John Tory.)<\/p>\n<p>That said, there is a link between Rossi&#8217;s Hydro pledge and the city&#8217;s transit plans. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/budget2010\/pdf\/presentation_cap2010_council_final.pdf\">2010 capital budget [PDF]<\/a> &#8212; which includes $301 million for Transit City as well as funds for new subways and streetcars &#8212; will use a $600 million Hydro promissory note to reduce debt charges for the next decade by $61 to $92 million per year &#8212; equal to an annual property tax hike of about 4%.<\/p>\n<p>A Hydro sale would force council to re-design the city&#8217;s long-term capital budget, so there could be implications for transit spending, depending on how the proceeds are used.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s interesting to note that Rossi, as Tory&#8217;s 2003 campaign manager, must have had some familiarity with transit issues, if only because Miller talked at length about transit during the mayoral debates.<\/p>\n<p>But seven years on, the transit file is almost unrecognizable: Both the Feds and the Province now have big money in the game; Metrolinx, which didn&#8217;t exist in 2003, is a major player; and Transit City &#8212; then merely a glimmer in the eye of transit advocate (and Spacing columnist) <a href=\"http:\/\/stevemunro.ca\/\">Steve Munro<\/a> &#8212; is embedded in the province&#8217;s regional transit plan.<\/p>\n<p>With the formal campaign start date less than two weeks away, Rossi has about ten minutes to get himself up to speed and then pronounce on whether this elaborately constructed consensus meets his smell test. Indeed, Rossi&#8217;s eventual stance on Transit City &#8212; and I hope it comes soon &#8212; will show whether he&#8217;s for real or merely this year&#8217;s version of the hack who serves up the comic relief.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/photopia\/4185571021\/\">Himy Syed<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LeDrew, two? In the week since Rocco Rossi joined the mayoral race as a potential spoiler, there&#8217;s been much speculation about whether he represents something more substantive than Stephen LeDrew, another former Liberal Party bagman who made a spectacle of himself in the 2006 race. After Rossi&#8217;s kick-off, one right-of-centre councilor came away unpersuaded that<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/12\/21\/john-lorinc-rocco-rossi-on-public-transit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;JOHN LORINC: Rocco Rossi on public transit&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"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":[94,3879,425,12503,12504,1030,444,1767,4127,346,416,13926,10726,5772,5203,1187,13925,19,2466,391],"class_list":["post-8421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-transit","tag-2010-election","tag-campaign-manager","tag-david-miller","tag-infrastructure-minister","tag-john-baird","tag-john-lorinc","tag-john-tory","tag-liberal-party","tag-mcguinty-government","tag-ottawa","tag-pdf","tag-reconstructed-scarborough-rt","tag-rocco-rossi","tag-spacing-columnist","tag-stephen-ledrew","tag-steve-munro","tag-tom-long","tag-toronto","tag-transit-advocate","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>JOHN LORINC: Rocco Rossi on public transit - 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\/2009\/12\/21\/john-lorinc-rocco-rossi-on-public-transit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JOHN LORINC: Rocco Rossi on public transit - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LeDrew, two? In the week since Rocco Rossi joined the mayoral race as a potential spoiler, there&#8217;s been much speculation about whether he represents something more substantive than Stephen LeDrew, another former Liberal Party bagman who made a spectacle of himself in the 2006 race. 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