Updated July 30, 2015: Comments on the discussion at today’s meeting have been added.

The Budget Committee met today and received the presentation linked from the main article. There was considerable debate, a welcome change from the Stintz/Ford years at the TTC where detailed knowledge of the budget was not of much interest to politicians. Now there actually is a Budget Committee, and its members take their job seriously. The idea is that by the time the budget hits Council, there will be a group of informed advocates beyond the senior staff who, in past years, have been left to fend as best they could as proponents of better transit in a hostile environment.

Among the topics that came up were:

• the question of the “average fare” and the role of a monthly pass in the fare mix;
• the future role of and arrangements for fare collection with Presto;
• the implications of various possible fare schemes, including increases, and the resulting effect on the TTC budget and subsidy requirement;
• the provision of improved service, its cost and its beneficiaries;
• the staffing of TTC and especially the numbers of new staff and their cost for various functions.

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