Although she doesn’t believe he deserves to be fired, TTC chair Karen Stintz says she’ll abide by the transit board’s decision if it axes TTC chief general manager Gary Webster at a special meeting Tuesday.
Stintz told reporters she won’t push for another special city council meeting to reinstate Webster or have her Toronto Transit Commission rivals removed from the TTC board.
But, speaking to reporters at City Hall, she warned that the stability of the TTC is at risk if Webster is removed.
“Over the last 16 months, we’ve done a lot of really good work at the TTC to improve our customer service, to improve our operational efficiency, to get our budget under control. At this time, it’s not clear to me why we would have a leadership change when all of those initiatives are just starting to get implemented.
Stintz said council is responsible for the decisions the city made to overturn Mayor Rob Ford’s plan to build underground transit and that Webster rendered his best professional opinion.
“Council could have chosen to accept or not accept his professional opinion. Council chose; to accept his professional opinion. I don’t’ know why my colleagues have called this meeting for today. I have to wait and see what it is that they’re hoping to achieve and why now,” she said of the meeting that was called by Ford loyalists Cesar Palacio, Frank Di Giorgio, Norm Kelly, Denzil Minnan-Wong and Vince Crisanti.
But it was clear Tuesday morning that Premier Dalton McGuinty is increasingly exasperated with Ford’s transit manoeuvres.
McGuinty wants City Hall to get its act together so transit planning is back on track.
“We have received … a pretty clear direction from council itself. (We’re) looking forward to a bit more refinement on that score,” he said. “It’s time for us to build public transit in a way that serves the people of Toronto.”
Ontario Transportation Bob Chiarelli wouldn’t comment on the possible firing of Webster but reiterated the need for council to make haste in deciding how to proceed with $8.4 billion in provincial funding for Toronto transit.
“We’re willing to let them make the decisions, but … I hope they do it quickly and they do it in partnership with us so we can start getting that $8.4 billion in the ground for the transit riders in Toronto,” he said.
Ford and his brother Etobicoke Councillor Doug Ford, refused to comment on the special TTC meeting Tuesday morning at the mayor’s weekly weigh-in.
The Fords have suggested on several occasions though that the TTC needs a management change. But Webster’s appearance before the TTC board follows closely on the mayor’s underground transit plans being defeated earlier this month at council. Stintz championed a return to a previous above-ground light rail plan.
On the weekend Di Giorgio suggested that Webster may not be the only TTC executive to lose their job.
But with a buy-out for Webster being estimated at about $500,000, city councillor Maria Augimeri said the Ford administration is showing disrespect for taxpayers.
“This mayor thinks nothing of putting millions in severance packages on the table,” said the Ford opponent, who also sits on the transit commission.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Robert Benzie and Paul Moloney
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