There is a very simple solution to the TTC's spending woes. Think of every TTC employee you've ever seen not doing their job, sleeping in the fare booth, texting or reading while on the road, treating paying passengers like shit, leaving subway stations and bus stops a godawful mess. Now think of how much money would be available to improve infrastructure and services if those people received the pay cuts or outright termination they so richly deserve.

When we get the unions out of our transit, we'll have room for things like honesty, accountability, and improvement.

Toronto doesn't even rank in the top 25 of cities in the world for transit. We get beat by Washington and Boston, cities not as big as ours. We have the worst commute times of 19 major North American cities. We have added zero track to our system in years while Barcelona adds 5 km or more a year, New York is in the midst of 3 major expansions of lines including an all new 2nd ave line.

Gerry's not in favour of tax money for transit but how about road expansion, where do you stand on that Gerry? Perhaps its should be paid for with the same magic wand theory that Rob Ford has. The private sector will pay for it. Great go ask the car and oil companies for money for road expansion. Tell me when they stop laughing.

Jerry Agar is right. We are drowning in gov. waste. Let the province and TO use a few dollars from the enormous $19K per person per year they are spending right now, too much of it wasted. Every single dollar spent needs to be weighed against transit expansion needs. For example:
1. Does Toronto need a $15M police horse brigade more than it needs to spend $15M annually on transit? Why not rent the same horses for a few days a year for $5,000 annually and $150K over the next 30 years and spend the $450M saved over 30 years on our $30B to $50B transit expansion?
2. Do we really need to spend $13K per student per year for an excellent education? Teachers cost only about $3K per student per year and the schools are built with developer fees, so we have about $9,000 per student per year in discretionary spending. Even $4,000 of this per Toronto student per year could fund all Toronto transit expansion over the next 30 years. Even if we couldn't save $4k, surely we could save $2K.
3. For 2M Torontonians to raise $1 or $2B per year for transit expansion we can easily calculate that we need to raise only $500 to $1,000 per Torontonian per year from the $19K that Ontario and Toronto are currently collectively spending per capita per year. Easy Pesi.
4. Healthcare, emergency services, roads, parks. All need a rethink, not to reduce services, but to reduce waste, duplication, and end counter-productive practises. We already spend more than enough to have the world' best transit. We've been suffering from poor disorganized mismanagement.

People like Gerry have no foresight. They talk and talk, only out of anger and resentment, all the while, missing the point completely.

GErry. You are hilarious...as usual!!

The point Jerry is making that before everyone demands more money in the form of fees and taxes, why don't we a) stop wasting it on the big things (eHealth, powerplant checkers, ORNGE), b) stop wasting it on the little things that accumulate into big amounts. I work on contract, and have seen the public sector in action. It's painful, as a taxpayer to see the abuse. Add it up, and the taxpayer is getting looted. Once they have their house in order, they can ask for more money. Until then forget it.