July 30, 2012

Alliance aims to discuss regional transportation in Toronto, Hamilton area

TORONTO

Twenty-seven leaders have stepped forward and become Regional Transportation Champions, joining the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance in an effort to start a conversation on transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

“We need to move people and goods quickly and easily for our region to be a great place to live, work, play and invest, and yet we’re decades behind in making that happen,” said John Tory, CivicAction chair. “Everyone agrees we have a crisis on our hands. We want to give residents a way to say, ‘we need a better system, and we need to find sustainable ways to pay for it.’”

The groups will launch a campaign this fall to discuss transit region-wide. The campaign will invite people to share why transportation is important to them, and what they are willing to do about it. Everyone needs to be part of the discussion – transit and road users, taxpayers, and residents and organizations in all GTHA municipalities. 

“Ontario’s tradespeople have built the region that we have now. They are ready and eager to build the next generation of transportation infrastructure that our growing city-region needs,” said Patrick Dillon, Business Manager, Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario and Regional Transportation Champion.

The campaign will include in-person and online forums and CivicAction will bring the consensus back to governments on what matters to people, and what actions they want governments to take to invest in a better system.

Provincial agency Metrolinx will submit an Investment Strategy to the province and region’s municipal governments by no later than June 1, 2013 with its recommendations on how to pay for an improved network to serve the GTHA.

CivicAction is calling for other leaders to join the campaign when it launches in the fall. The campaign will take place alongside efforts by Toronto Board of Trade, CivicAction’s Emerging Leaders Network’s Move Me! group, and other organizations to give residents a voice in moving governments to act. Visit http://www.civicaction.ca/regional-transportation for more information.

DCN NEWS SERVICES

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