This article was originally published with a title of “February”. It has been changed to “March”.

The TTC’s Audit & Risk Management Committee will meet on March 24 to discuss several items. The agenda includes:

• TTC Internal Audit 2025 Audit Plan and Departmental Evaluation
• City of Toronto Auditor General’s Report on TTC Non-Union Workforce Planning and Management

There is also a confidential update on the Fare Compliance Action Plan, but no hint of what this might entail.

The 2025 Audit Plan includes four areas for review including:

• A review of the TTC’s customer-centric initiatives, performance metrics, and public reporting practices to ensure alignment with customer needs, operational best practices, and global transit standards.
• A review of processes and controls over maintenance and rehabilitation of subway tunnels.

Follow-up reviews include:

• […] implementation of various third-party Hydraulic Leak Investigation Recommendations

The Auditor General’s report covers many aspects of employee management including issues with retention, succession planning, employee satisfaction and complaint handling. There are profound problems with lack of confidence in the internal complaint handling process.

Departing employees gave very negative marks to the management and culture at TTC, and yet for the period from 2016 to 2024 there was no analysis or reporting on data from exit interviews. This is not surprising considering that the CEO during much of this time was not noted for his open, collegial manner, and critical reviews might have been embarrassing.

As a quick overview, there is an Audit at a Glance, but more troubling information is in the full report.

The Auditor General is silent on the number and cost of “resignations” that were accompanied by buy-outs and non-disclosure agreements that occurred throughout Rick Leary’s tenure as CEO. A difficulty in attracting staff would also be affected by a “poisoned work environment” at TTC which became fairly common knowledge.

I was deeply troubled by the Auditor General’s report because it reveals an organization with widespread problems in employee attitudes, and by extension a dysfunctional management-employee relationship. Long-time TTC watchers have been aware of issues, although getting comments on the record has been challenging. The TTC Board should be concerned at how this situation developed on their watch, and how complicit they are in allowing this decline. Any incoming CEO will face challenges to rebuild the esprit de corps within the TTC, on top of the many other problems our transit system faces.

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