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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

I saw a Pan Am wrap a week or so ago; took me a while to figure out what it was. I think the design has more impact from a distance (I was standing right beside the streetcar)
 
PinkLucy said:
I saw a Pan Am wrap a week or so ago; took me a while to figure out what it was. I think the design has more impact from a distance (I was standing right beside the streetcar)
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Yeah, it definitely looks better from a distance. I was just south of Davisville and could see the entire train at once from there.
 
picard102 said:
At this rate, just offer it for free to everyone and jack up taxes.
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Seniors should of course pay more, not less. They're richer than young people on average. And they are not taking the TTC to work where they pay taxes. No reason to subsidize them whatsoever.
 
muller877 said:
If this was just for off-peak service it may of been useful. But they are taking the same amount of space as everyone else and can use this for rush-hour service (including many who still work). How is this good public policy? (other than pandering to voters who turn out in droves)
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Why only seniors off peak? Why not unemployed hipster millenials too?
 
New picks for TTC board include no women

Committee chooses four men, including two with ties to Mayor John Tory, to sit on the commission, which would be left with only one female member.

From The Star, at this link:

More than half the TTC's 1.8 million daily riders are women. But there will be only one woman among 11 TTC board members if city council approves the latest recommendations for citizen commissioners.

The civic appointments committee, chaired by Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, is recommending four men with corporate executive experience, for the four available spots on the TTC board. If council approves, Councillor Shelley Carroll would be the sole woman on the Toronto Transit Commission. One of the men, Rick Byers, ran as the provincial Progressive Conservative candidate in Oakville in 2007, during Mayor John Tory's time as party leader. He also has "28 years of work experience in the accounting, finance and infrastructure industries,†says a biography in the committee’s minutes.

 Another, Kevin Marshman, was a vice-president at Rogers Communications between 1992 and 1998, a period that includes Tory's time as president of that company.

The mayor's spokeswoman said neither Tory nor his office had anything to do with the recommendations. City rules prohibit the mayor or his staff from being involved in the appointments process, she said.

"The mayor has no personal relationship with Mr. Marshman. With respect to Mr. Byers, yes, the mayor is acquainted with him," Amanda Galbraith said.

"The candidates applied and went through an independent process like all others and were duly selected by members of the civic appointments committee. We have every expectation they will do an excellent job," said Galbraith.

Councillor Paula Fletcher , who sits on the committee, said her objections to the lack of diversity and women among the chosen candidates were ignored.

“Either there's something very wrong with women in the city of Toronto or something very wrong with the civic appointments committee, and I believe it's the latter,†she said.

“When the mayor puts his deputy as the chair of civic appointments, my understanding would be that's a leadership role in making sure all the pieces of city policy are taken into account when we are selecting. Unfortunately, I don't believe that's happened, and I don't think that's great for our mayor, who prides himself on equality and diversity,†said Fletcher.

Maureen Adamson, outgoing TTC vice-chair, reapplied for a spot on the commission. She was interviewed but later informed that she wasn't among the chosen candidates.

Adamson is president of the Michener Institute of Applied Health Sciences, with a staff of about 160. She was previously the CEO of Cystic Fibrosis Canada and is an accredited director through the Institute of Corporate Directors of Canada.

“A board like that represents Toronto, (which) is such a diverse community, it needs to be somewhat reflective of the community it's serving,†she said Thursday.

“They should be considering a gender balance. There's so much literature on that in terms of good governance. Gender balance and diversity's important, along with skills,†said Adamson.

She said continuity on the board is also important. It takes new TTC commissioners time to get up to speed on the complexities of a huge public agency. “They're not single-year issues, they're multi-year issues," she said.

Anju Virmani, an executive with Cargojet in Mississauga, also applied to return to the TTC but didn't get an interview.

Toronto lawyer Alan Heisey has been recommended to return for a second term. A retired CIBC executive, Ron Lalonde, is also being recommended.

Councillor Josh Colle, who chairs the TTC and sat in on the interviews, asked the committee to "strongly consider" candidates with a background in finance, risk management, human resources, labour relations, law and procurement practices.

"I think they are skill sets to be found abundantly in male and female candidates," he said, adding that it's the city's policy to look at appointments through a lens of gender equity and diversity.

The four recommended appointees are outstanding candidates, but there were equally qualified women, Colle said.

Chair Minnan-Wong did not return calls to the Star on Thursday.

Applications for the commission are screened by city staff. But interviews and selections are conducted by the councillors who sit on the civic appointments committee, said John Elvidge, director, secretariat for the city clerk’s office.

Enforcement of the city's diversity policies is up to the committee and council, he said.

The vice-chair of the TTC, a citizen member, receives $10,000 a year. The other citizens get $5,000, plus a $450 per diem for every meeting.
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How many of the candidates actually use the TTC on a regular basis? Photo ops do not count. Having a non-transit user like Denzil Minnan-Wong chairing the civic appointments committee is just wrong.

How about getting actual people who are transit experts or actually were involved in some sort of transportation of people?

I nominate former TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster. He might know something about public transit.
 
salsa said:
And that's why they fired him.
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Webster picked one heck of a good replacement though.


Incidentally, they didn't technically fire Webster. They asked him to work from home with full pay, on projects of his own choosing, without interacting with other TTC staff, until his originally planned retirement date.
 
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