The recent blasts of winter weather experienced across the GTA and southern Ontario test our skills and our patience as motorists. These treacherous road conditions make already long commutes plagued by gridlock even longer. Each day, commuters from Vaughan and across the GTA spend hours stuck in traffic or jammed in buses or subway cars. Commuting times are getting longer while the provincial government ponders what action to take. The McGuinty government estimates the population of the Greater Golden Horseshoe will increase by 3 million people over the next 25 years. During that same period, the government estimates York Region?s population will increase by 740,000. While we welcome these new residents to our community, we must ensure infrastructure is in place that can adequately handle the pressures caused by such a large influx of people.
The provincial government?s ?Move Ontario 2020? plan calls for the development of 52 rapid transit projects across the GTA. It has tasked Metrolinx, formerly the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, with formulating a report to be given to the government in 2008 on their vision of the future of public transportation in the region. While I agree on the value of long-term planning, I believe the government?s goal of having these projects completed by 2020 does not reflect the immediacy of the problem. And I have yet to be convinced that Move Ontario 2020 is very much more than a politically motivated idea. We need reality and we need it yesterday! Instead of taking action on the issue of gridlock, the government offers re-announcements of past projects and no concrete steps forward.
If we hope to get cars off the road and ease the problem of gridlock, public transit must be made more reliable and predictable. That is why I started a petition, available on my petershurman.com website, to make the McGuinty government follow through on their 2006 announcement for funding to allow Toronto and York Region to extend the subway to the Vaughan Corporate Centre at Highway 7. Neither Toronto, nor York Region, has the capacity to assume such a massive undertaking alone or together. The Province must take the lead on this project - a project that was recommended by Metrolinx in November 2007.
Timely investments must also be made into GO Transit. In a recent briefing, the Ontario Auditor General was critical of the state of the GO system, noting that overcrowding and delays have gotten worse. He also noted that no single initiative will make any significant reduction in delays. However, the McGuinty government still has no real strategy to improve GO. This is made evident by the fact that it will be another two years before all of the locomotives recently purchased by the government come online.
I will continue to advocate on your behalf for real and meaningful action to be taken by the Provincial government in relation to public transit. Communities like Vaughan must be given the tools to succeed if they are to accommodate the growth projected for the next 25 years. We need the Province to be a real partner.