Josh Matlow says he would invest tens of millions of dollars a year in order to restore TTC service to pre-pandemic levels if elected mayor of Toronto.
Matlow made the announcement Wednesday morning and said he would spend $180 million a year in order to restore service which was cut in the latest budget.
“These cuts disproportionately affect some of Toronto's most underserved communities. It affects North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke,” Matlow said.
He called the cuts “reckless and irresponsible” and said they came at a time when the TTC should've been trying to restore faith in the transit system following the pandemic.
The service changes came into effect on March 26, impacting 39 routes, most of them bus routes.
Matlow said he would pay for the restored service through his proposed City Works Fund — a dedicated property tax he says would cost the average homeowner $67 a year — and a proposed “climate action levy,” a parking lot levy targeting large businesses and corporations.
A recent study out of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) found that more than 80 per cent of the affected routes that were cut pass through neighbourhoods with higher poverty rates, higher unemployment, and higher numbers of immigrants.
The cuts mean longer wait times for many riders, and transit advocates have flagged that as a safety concern, particularly for women at a time when the TTC has seen an increase in violence incidents.
Transit advocacy group TTC riders issued a statement Wednesday calling on all mayoral candidates to state their position about the cuts and whether they would reverse them if elected.
“Reversing TTC service cuts is a top election issue for transit users. That’s why TTCriders is surveying all mayoral candidates about their commitments to reverse cuts and how they will pay for it,” Executive Director Shelagh Pizey-Allen said in a statement.
She said the group also wants to know if candidates will vote to implement a commercial parking levy as a dedicated funding source for TTC operations and pointed to city estimates that the move could generate between $191 and $575 million per year.
Before stepping down earlier this year, Mayor John Tory had floated the idea of a parking Levy, after initially rejecting the idea from TTCRiders, as one way to bring in additional revenue for the cash strapped city.
While transit service has been a major issue in most municipal elections in Toronto, the conversation around transit has more recently shifted to a discussion around safety on the system following a spate of violent incidents.
-With files from Abby O’Brien
