Toronto, ON, Canada / Talk Radio AM640
By Maria Madden
Head Of Transit Union Calls For Inquiry Into Metrolinx
The President of Toronto’s transit union is calling for an independent public inquiry into Metrolinx.
In a scathing press release issued on Thursday morning, Bob Kinnear squarely took aim at the provincial government transit agency and the Liberal Government behind it, calling it’s oversight of Metrolinx, ”scandalous’.
According to Kinnear, who is the leader of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113, ”the Union-Pearson Express fiasco is only the tip of the iceberg” adding that ”if you think that eHealth, the gas plants, Ornge helicopters, and the many other Liberal privatization schemes were expensive, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
The union head is accusing the Liberals of putting business interests ahead of the needs of the public, saying that ”unless decision-making changes, over the next decade, the money that will go into bad transit planning to mainly benefit multinational corporations will far surpass what has been thrown away already by the Liberals on other projects,” adding that ”decisions on transit infrastructure made now will affect our city for the rest of the 21st century. And the cost will be enormous.”
Kinear says that an expert second opinion makes sense and that he has already spoken to transit experts and stakeholders and has found broad support for the idea of an independent enquiry into Metrolinx,
”It is only sensible to determine independently if we are going to get value for money. So far, no Metrolinx project has been able to show that. It’s very disturbing.”