Commuters big winners as City/TPA clear the decks and makes peace

Fixing Toronto – Part Four

At the risk of boring you with more nitty gritty on how things work in the rough and tumble world of politics and the Toronto waterfront, I have very good news for a change.

After 12 weeks of constructive dialogue, the City of Toronto (read the Mayor’s office, key Councillors and senior City staff) and the Toronto Port Authority have done their best to reach a deal that will resolve a wide variety of outstanding legal and administrative dispute between them. Some of which date back to 1999.

The “macro agreement” goes to City Council for consideration at next week’s meeting. If it passes, the lawyers won’t be happy as a bunch of unnecessary and costly litigation gets dropped; but it is great news for taxpayers in general and TTC riders in particular.

There are four key elements to the deal, which saw the resolution of about a dozen large and small issues:

1. This agreement will involve the City of Toronto paying the TPA $11.7 million relating to capital and operating payments that had been withheld by City Council in relation to previous land parcel transfers by the TPA to the City of Toronto.

2. The TPA will pay to the City a sum of more than $6.4 million, which reflects the amount of Payments in Lieu of Taxes (“PILTs”) that the TPA believes is due and payable for the 1999 to 2009 period. Read: the TPA is “paying its taxes”; these payments had been witheld due to #1 above and a basic disagreement over what the figure should be.

3. The TPA is selling, for the princely sum of $1.00, an 18-acre parcel of land that the Toronto Transit Commission intends to use for its new Leslie Street streetcar facility. This property (a subset of a 200 acre parcel that the TPA owns at Leslie and Lakeshore) represents a critical component of the TTC’s expansion program for the residents of Toronto. Toronto’s ‘Transit City’ vision is one step closer to reality.

4. The TPA has agreed to accept payments relating to Harbour User Fees that treat the City of Toronto’s historic ferry fleet in the same fashion as Toronto-based commercial tour boats. The impact of this calculation means that the City of Toronto will pay HUFs of approximately six cents per passenger, based upon traditional seasonal use; this amount represents less than one percent of the current $6.50 adult fare charged by the City for round-trip passage to the Toronto Islands (down dramatically from the historical 50 cent round trip HUF charge; it was never the full $6.50 fare as one City Councillor claims). This modest six cent fee applies back 10 years and also going forward; the City will pay the TPA approximately $380,000 to cover all HUFs that have accrued dating to 1999, covering in excess of 6 million round-trip passengers in aggregate.

In summary, this macro solution is the culmination of a very positive dialogue with the Mayor’s team, key Councillors and senior City staff over the past 12 weeks, and I’m delighted with the outcome. Miller Senior Advisor John Piper is a guy that any 2010 Mayoral candidate will want in his corner. The TPA is looking forward to putting past conflicts with the City behind it and beginning a new era of co-operation.

InsideToronto got the details:

“I think it’s great news,” said Paula Fletcher, the councillor for the area.

“We have a good site for the LRV, and it’s what the whole community thinks is the best site. This is the first piece of good news in what is hopefully the second era of our relations with the Toronto Port Authority. People didn’t think it was possible. I’m very pleased with this level of settlement, that this will be able to move ahead. It’s good news all around.”

The mainstream media will ignore it all, since reporting good news is not as much fun as writing about conflict; so you’re stuck with reading about it here. Toronto Mayor David Miller and his team worked with the TPA to resolve a long list of issues (with the encouragement of some key Councillors) and in a very constructive manner. Hats off to him; he deserves much credit for pulling hard on the oars at his end.

City residents are the winners.

MRM
(disclosure – this blog, as always, reflects a personal opinion and in no way represents the views of the TPA, its Board/Staff or the federal government)