TTC carried essential workers during COVID, now mayor wants help to pay for it

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Toronto kept the TTC going during the pandemic for essential workers and now senior levels of government need to come on board with some funding to help keep the system running, Mayor John Toronto says.

Ridership dipped to 27% of pre-pandemic levels at the height of the lockdowns and has since rebounded to 60% — an improvement but still well below previous levels, he said.

The city’s executive committee meets Tuesday to deal with a report that lays out around $300 million in capital projects — including park and TTC state-of-repair investments — that will have to be paused until Toronto fills an $815-million to $875-million hole in its annual operating budget.

Tory has gone to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as provincial and federal finance ministers, looking for funding.

“We’re going to help ourselves — we’ve achieved hundreds of millions in efficiencies, so we’re not just saying give us more money,” Tory insisted Monday. “We’re prepared to contribute more, but we need to have these other governments help us, and we’re continuing in those discussions. But they’re the two that have to help.”

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The TTC traditionally carries 1.5 million riders a day, more than many transit systems carry in a year, he said.

When the pandemic hit, buses, trains and streetcars kept running to bring essential workers — like frontline emergency and health-care staff — to their jobs.

“It’s no secret that when it comes to very significant losses that we experienced in revenue because of the pandemic, and solely because of the pandemic, this wasn’t any kind of mismanagement or anything else, it was the pandemic dramatically reduced ridership on the TTC because people were told to stay home,” Tory said.

Municipalities, unlike provincial and federal governments, are required to balance their budgets each year. The federal and provincial governments financed their COVID-19 response with borrowed money.

aartuso@postmedia.com