Council to discuss whether to ask province to make TTC essential service
Last Updated: Sunday, April 27, 2008 | 5:22 PM ET
CBC News
Toronto city council will discuss making the TTC an essential service later this week. Toronto Mayor David Miller says city council will soon take up the issue of whether public transit is an essential service.
"That will be before council on Tuesday. My hope is that council will send the request to committee so there can be some thoughtful consideration," Miller said at a news conference Sunday after the province legislated an end to a weekend walkout that threatened commuter chaos for the coming work week.
"I think it needs to be looked at calmly through the committee process ... in a calm and rational way," he said Sunday.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has said he is open to the idea.
"It may be that the city of Toronto wants to approach us with such a request... (and) that is something that we would consider," he said on April 18. "Torontonians themselves will have to decide that they want something done, and they'd have to approach us. That hasn't happened."
The city doesn't have the power to declare transit an essential service by itself and a final decision would be up to the legislature.
For commuters who had to put up with two days of suspended service, news that the Toronto Transit Commission would be rolling again was welcomed.
"That sounds very good. I'm very happy," Anna Belenkova said as she walked past a still-closed downtown subway station just minutes after the back-to-work legislation was passed Sunday.
"I didn't go out (Saturday) just because of it and many parties got ruined."
The transit system is expected to be up and running by Sunday evening, and at full strength by Monday's morning's rush hour, a relief to the 1.5 million riders who use transit weekdays.
"It's good news, good to hear that," said John Keller, who faced a 75-minute walk to work Monday.
"It's been much more difficult to get anywhere — a lot more walking and calling on people to drive us around," said another pedestrian, Michael Goncalves. "It will be a lot easier [now] to get to school."
With files from the Canadian Press
