The Petition
The Ontario government wants to use a public private partnership (P3) to build four new Light Rapid Transit lines in Toronto. They plan to give the $8.4B for this project to a private multinational consortium. A multinational consortium will put their private interests ahead of accessibility and affordability for Toronto transit users.
The Canada Line in Vancouver was built using a P3 and costs rose $500 million above the original estimate of $1.5B. Even with the added $500 million in costs, transit users ended up with three fewer stations. They must also make up for $21 million in "lost revenue" because the private operator exaggerated their ridership projections.
Our publicly accountable TTC has fifty years experience building and operating transit lines. Any extra revenue they make goes back to the City, not toward private profit. We can't afford to privatize new LRT's in Toronto.