TORONTO – Tuesday’s city council is set to be a showdown just hammering out an agenda: Two of the issues leaving councillors most divided – an ailing bike-sharing program and a debate over transit funding – aren’t slated for discussion this week.
Toronto Transit Commission Chair Karen Stintz wants to ask city staff investigate the possibility of the city bailing out BIXI bikes, the bike-sharing service that came to Toronto in 2011 and is now in dire financial straits.
She also wants to bring back a discussion on how to bring in the revenue needed to fund the city’s transit plans – a topic that Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee pushed back to a May 28 meeting – one day after Metrolinx, the province’s regional transit body, provides its recommendations to the province. Critics have said that leaves Toronto out of an issue vital to its future.
Thirty councillors will have to vote in favour of putting transit revenue tools on the agenda before a discussion can even take place.
While Stintz is hopeful she can wrangle those 30 votes from Toronto’s 44 councillors, Ford has repeatedly threatened to name any councillor who votes in favour of raising taxes in order to pay for transit during his weekly radio show.
That’s a threat Stintz says she doesn’t understand.
“If the mayor actually wants to talk about a subway in Scarborough, the only way to do that is to bring the item to council,” Stintz said “If he’s really committed to a subway then he’ll bring the item forward.”
Stintz refused to say who would bring the item forward at Tuesday’s city council session.
The city council meeting, which is expected to stretch into Wednesday, already has several similarly controversial motions.
Councillors will be debating whether to change the Tripartite Agreement prohibiting jets from landing at Billy Bishop Airport. Porter Airlines has been lobbying heavily for an expanded runway that would allow it to land jets at the island airport.
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam put forward a motion, seconded by Mike Layton, to require cars leave a one-metre space when they pass bicycles on Toronto roads.
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