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September 17, 2006
Trains in vain
Reports yesterday suggested, promisingly, that the federal government might withhold its share of funding for new Toronto subway cars unless the TTC puts the contract out to tender.
It's not an outrageous request. David Miller and Howard Moscoe constantly claim that Toronto has an obligation to keep jobs in Ontario even as the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay churns out rolling stock for cities around the world. I'm sure the irony is lost on them.
If they can prove this moral obligation exists, then why not quantify its cost? Put the contract out to tender and then explain to Torontonians why's worth $20 million or $100 million to take the Bombardier bid. Clearly the majority of cities around the world do not operate on these principles. The burden of proof rests squarely on Miller's and Moscoe's shoulders, but they remain totally unwilling to make the case.
Since City Hall feels this burning obligation to the constituents of its senior government, I can think of nothing more fitting than an even more senior government bailing out the people whose interests City Hall was supposed to be protecting in the first place. As Kevin McGran wrote in the Star:
…an 11-year-old could tell you the best way to get the best deal is to shop around for the best price. Just about every purchase the city makes, or the TTC makes, is based on this premise.
Indeed, the City of Toronto deploys all sorts of vehicles on a daily basis that are made outside Ontario. Here's a whole page worth of city-owned cars that come from the US, Europe and Japan. What's so special about subway cars?
Posted by Chris Selley at September 17, 2006 06:36 PM
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Comments
You know you are going to get them on a "buy Ontario" automobile policy, don't you?
Posted by: DCardno at September 18, 2006 03:06 PM