Visions for the GTTA

Spit in the eye; A slap in the face

"Spit in the eye ... A slap in the face ..."

Those were the words of Howard Moscoe when it was announced that the TTC would receive $1.46 million in federal money for security upgrades.

"Based on our ridership, we should be getting one-third of the money. The TTC carries 85 per cent of all of the passengers in the GTA on its transit system. It's spit in the eye," he said. "It shows utter and complete disrespect for the citizens of Toronto. It's like handing a bum a dime and saying, `Go buy a cup of coffee.'"

Is Moscoe guilty of political grandstanding? When you consider that GO Transit got $5.3 million and $4.3 million went to Union Station, I would say that he's just stating facts. Hell, even Edmonton got $2.2 million.

When asked why the TTC didn't get very much money, Conservative M.P. Gord Brown, who made the announcement, said that "They may have been asking for more money under things that did not qualify under the criteria." Since when does installing 2500 security cameras cameras not count as "upgrading security equipment"?

Then, to add insult to injury, Brown added that since the TTC uses Union Station too, they will be able to share that money - The only TTC related items in Union Station are the signs pointing to the subway, which is not in Union Station.

Clearly, the federal government doesn't know a thing about the transit needs of Toronto. The polite thing to do would have been to get to know us before having it out for us?

Labels: politics, ttc

posted by Andrae Griffith @ 1:23 p.m.