Last Friday, Bryan Tuckey represented BILD at a transit summit the day after meeting with staff at Metrolinx, the provincial agency behind the regional transportation plan dubbed The Big Move. We support the Metrolinx plan and believe that investment should be targeted to support jobs and aligned with the province’s principles in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
The summit, hosted by the City Institute at York University, Toronto City Councillor Adam Vaughan, the Canadian Urban Institute and Spacing magazine, sought to align voices across the municipal, provincial, educational and private sectors. It was a call for coordinated and sustained funding for the construction and maintenance of a regional transit system that supports the civic and economic vitality of our growing region.
On the panel were Marcy Burchfield of the Neptis Foundation, Sean Hertel, an urban planning consultant, Christopher Wong of the York University Development Corporation and, of course, Bryan Tuckey from BILD. The discussion was moderated by the City of Toronto’s new Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat.
Our hope for the day’s discussions was that the leaders in the room would focus on investing in and executing an existing plan that supports our growing region.
The Greater Golden Horseshoe is the third fastest growing urban region in North America and over the next two decades, it is expected that we will welcome 3.7 million more people and add 1.8 million jobs to the area. Right now nearly 100,000 people move to the GTA every year and our industry builds about 40,000 homes to meet the demand.
Now is the time to make Metrolinx’s regional transportation plan a reality. All of us will have to play a part and the agency will be coming forward with an investment strategy in the new year. We should all be thinking about what’s needed and what we’re willing to do to get this region’s people and goods moving again.
Needless to say, the summit was also taking place in the Twitterverse. Here are some of the #transitschool tweets that kept the conversation going.
Did you know Marshall Mcluhan was a terrible driver? #transitschool
— Andrew Russell (@AndyRuzzell) September 28, 2012
University-driven infrastructure services one of the biggest demographics: students #transitschool — Imelda N (@urbanImelda) September 28, 2012
In 1900 only 3 universities in Ontario. Now there is 15+ campuses in GTHA. Getting to them has always been a challenge. #transitschool — Spacing (@Spacing) September 28, 2012
Challenge: reduce barriers to development along centres & corridors that supports transit says Bryan Tuckey @yorkuniversity #transitschool
— BILD (@bildgta) September 28, 2012
MT @fabiennechan: Brian Tuckey – Places to Grow should be used more as a growth plan, not a plan for growth control. #transitschool
— BILD (@bildgta) September 28, 2012
.@jen_keesmaat points out that regardless of transit progress, priority is living close to where we normally go (paraphrased) #transitschool
— Roger Keil (@rkeil) September 28, 2012
@citislikr Transit / Transportation infrastructure a priority at @ontariocofc‘s Toronto Regional Economic Round Table #OES #transitSchool
— Catherine Soplet (@Soplet) October 4, 2012
