Statement by Nicholas Kevlahan

Dear Mayor and Council,

I am writing to urge you to please NOT support the 10-year transit plan until it has been thoroughly reviewed, the public has been consulted and its strategic and economic development implications have been thoroughly assessed.

I am very concerned that this plan will completely reverse almost 8 years and $10 million dollars of rapid transit planning, without Council being clear what is being proposed and what the stakes are.

Here are some reasons to take a step back and assess all alternatives:

1. The 10-year plan is massive over-reach by staff considering the 2013 Council motion was to propose a 10-year plan using $45 million of local money to achieve council's 2001 goal of doubling per capita transit use to 100 rides. This is instead a $300 million plan using almost entirely provincial money that explicitly abandons our goal and proposes an extremely marginal increase to 50 rides.

2. This plan costs 40% of the B-line LRT that involved years of public consultation, detailed land use planning, and an assessment of economic impact. The 10-year plan was rushed through in secret and none of this work has been done.

3. The plan includes very surprising and incredibly expensive items: $200 million for a bus maintenance facility (THIS IS 1/4 THE TOTAL B-LINE LRT BUDGET!), $20 million for advertising and 95% of local money comes from high fare increases.

4. Despite claims to contrary, this plan is clearly designed to kill LRT for the foreseeable future. This is a major change of strategic direction that has held steady for the past 10 years. It is especially surprising since LRT would free up 18 buses, not much less than the 25 buses this plan is proposing to add. The public will find it incomprehensible that we are passively throwing in the towel on LRT (and indeed any rapid transit) just weeks after Wynne repeated her promise to fully fund the direct costs of the RAPID TRANSIT system we choose!

Please regain Council control over the LRT file. Hit the pause button, form the citizen's advisory committee the Mayor was elected on and let the citizens and council know what the real decision is:

Do we want a $200 million bus maintenance facility or do we want a $800 million B-line LRT paid by the Province and the economic developments benefits it will bring. We can't have both.

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