Friday, February 10, 2006

Gruntings from John Barber - NDP windbag

John Barber's assessment of Jane Pitfield is telling. If one of the NDP's semi-official press agents is already feeling the need to take shots at a rival mayoral candidate - by my calculation we are ten months from away from the municipal elections - they may in fact be worried.

I for one will prefer a candidate who demands fresh thinking instead of just demanding money. Pitfield indeed has point about the TTC. In comparison to Montreal's transit agency (the STM), which from 1994 to 2004 held its operating cost per passenger to an 11.6% gain, the same measure for the TTC rose 28.9%.

Had the TTC managed the same 'fresh thinking' as has the Montreal system, it would have saved over $124 million in 2004 alone. Hence the $16.5 million in savings suggested by Councillor Pitflield and others should be easily achievable.

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