Results tagged “michaelthompson”

Toronto City Council, after debating yesterday evening and all of today, voted earlier tonight to prioritize the building of a so-called Downtown Relief Line—a new subway route meant to alleviate stress on the existing infrastructure—at the expense of expanding the Yonge line north into Richmond Hill. Council's executive committee had already attached substantial conditions to the controversial Yonge North Extension, worried that an influx of suburban transit users will overload subways running into downtown. Today's amendment, introduced by Councillor Michael Thompson, calls for Metrolinx to put the new downtown subway ahead of the Yonge expansion in its fifteen-year plan for the city, and will likely reignite claims of a turf war between Toronto and York Region. In a welcome moment of levity, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong's motion that the TTC "come up with a more inspiring name for the Downtown Rapid Transit Line" also passed in a 37-7 slam-dunk.

In a 23-22 vote City Council just defeated a motion that would have declared the TTC an essential service. Essential service designation would have, if approved by the province, prevented TTC members from striking legally. The declaration was originally considered and rejected at a meeting of the Executive Committee under the leadership of Mayor Miller despite widespread public support for the measure. Councillors Jenkins, Palacio, and Thompson have been spearheading a campaign to overturn that decision, collecting signatures and publishing editorials to build support. The major argument in favour: the impact of a TTC strike is economically and socially unsustainable and outweighs the union's reasonable right to strike. The major argument against: declaring the TTC essential is cost-prohibitive (contracts for essential service employees tend to be higher than others); moreover, wildcat strikes and work-to-rule actions would still be possible and have occurred in other jurisdictions where transit services have been declared essential, rendering the designation substantially ineffectual. Both TTC management and the union leadership opposed the declaration, as did Councillors Giambrone and Mihevc, chair and vice-chair of the TTC, respectively. Council did pass motions asking that the province designate the Wheel-Trans division of the TTC essential, and require that the union give 48 hours notice of any strike action.

If we have to post one more picture of a gun...Jeez. Well, given there's been no update on the 'national gun crisis' in a while, let's check up on the issue with a few links.

A dire situation dictates dire actions, not overblown reactions. Toronto City Hall, sadly, seems prone to the latter this month.