During the City budget vote at the January 17th City Council meeting, Councillor Josh Colle moved a motion to use $15 million of the City’s 2011 surplus to avoid cuts to a number of valued city services. This included directing $5 million to the TTC to prevent service reductions.
Councillors voted in favour of the motion 23-21. See how your Councillor voted here.
This $5 million is enough to stop the majority of the TTC service cuts proposed in the TTC's budget!
This crucial motion would not have happened without the efforts of thousands of TTCriders who contacted their Councillors and told them that cutting TTC service isn’t fair. It’s because of you that public transit and the health of our city was prioritized at Council!
For a detailed analysis of what this $5 million will mean for 2012 TTC service you can read Steve Munro's blog post on this subject here.
Unfortunately, the battle may not be over. Instead of funding the TTC, and following the will of the majority on Council, TTC Chair Karen Stintz wants to put the $5 million toward Wheel-Trans for dialysis patients.
Although this is a very important cause, the funds gained from Colle’s motion were intended to stop proposed cuts to TTC routes.
The fate of the funds is now in the hands of TTC Commissioners, who meet on January 31st. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments regarding this issue. In the meantime, consider contacting the Toronto Transit Commission to ensure that the $5 million goes to stop TTC service cuts.
TTCriders asked all federal MP candidates about their commitments to public transit. Read their responses to our transit policy survey and see where your candidates stand on improving public transit!