Keep Transit Publicly Built, Owned, Operated & Maintained

Over 2,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113 live in Scarborough. In addition to supporting our local economy and local communities, ATU 113 helps to provide many Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, youths and new Canadians living in our community access to good jobs with pathways to highly skill, well-paid jobs in the TTC.

Scarborough Transit Action believes that the TTC should remain publicly built, owned, operated and maintained. Contracting out TTC jobs to private companies ends up costing taxpayers and TTC riders more as the higher attrition rates generally associated with poorly paid contract employees affects TTC service levels, the TTC’s state of good repair and ultimately TTC fares. It also puts, especially during COVID-19, TTC employees and riders at risk as many of these employees lack paid sick-leave benefits and are often forced to go to work when they are ill.

COVID-19 has made clear the real need for new rapid transit lines in Toronto as many of us have been forced to ride overcrowded buses where social distancing is impossible throughout the pandemic. However, the push to open new markets through public-private partnership (P3) models puts profits ahead of lower fares and better service for riders. Since 2012, when the McGuinty government announced that Metrolinx, Ontario’s transit authority, would take over the delivery of  $8.4 billion worth of new transit  from our public TTC, local municipal and provincial regional transportation systems have been consolidated into the hands of a few, often foreign, multinationals. These multinationals lobby governments to spend money on new lines instead of better bus service and fare reductions.

In 2018, Scarborough Transit Action was proud to join in the city-wide campaign lead by TTC Riders, Progress Toronto and ATU 113 that stopped Doug Ford from stealing Toronto’s subways and breaking apart the TTC.

For more information on the problem with P3 models see More P3 Troubles as Eglinton Crosstown Private Consortium Files Lawsuit Against Metrolinx by ATU 113.