Chair pitches alternative to dissolving London Transit Commission

On Tuesday night a council committee recommended dissolving the London Transit Commission – CTV's Daryl Newcombe has more on what's next.

The Chair of London’s Transit Commission (LTC) is speaking out after council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) recommended disbanding the LTC and temporarily appointing five councillors in its place.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing,” admitted LTC Chair Stephanie Marentette. “I think it has some people really scratching their heads and not necessarily feeling very comfortable with collapsing the commission without a plan.”

Marentette stands behind her proposal to have councillors fill the three vacant seats on the commission after Councillor David Ferreira, Commissioner Jacqueline Madden, and David Little resigned over the weekend.

She believes her alternative to disbanding the commission would retain the institutional knowledge of the remaining Commissioners while giving council a voting majority (four of seven seats).

On Tuesday, members of SPPC heard directly from Madden about why she resigned, “I have certainly never felt welcome, nor have I felt like I’ve been treated as a peer. But as long as I felt I was advancing accessibility - I forged ahead.”

The committee debated a motion to dissolve the current LTC and appoint an interim commission of five councillors to address issues including accessibility, ridership experience, expanding routes, increasing frequency, and responding to council direction.

“I think we have a governance crisis with this board,” Councillor Sam Trosow argued. “We are responsible for dealing with it.”

Councillor Jerry Pribil, who is one of the LTC’s four remaining members, warned against rushing to overhaul the governance of such a large and complex organization without a well developed plan to move forward.

“We are making this decision [to] potentially dissolve this commission with no clear vision of the future,” Pribil told colleagues.

SPPC members voted 9 to 6 in favour of replacing the transit commission with five councillors.

After the meeting, Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis emphasized that appointing councillors to oversee London Transit is a temporary step towards a long-term solution.

“A governance and operations audit is still underway [at London Transit] that will provide a long term resolution to how we look at what the permanent governance model,” Lewis explained. “This [five-member interim commission] will give us a short-term oversight body while we work through some of these issues.”

“That audit is not going to be completed until November 2026,” Marentette explained. “So what are you doing between now and then? I think that is the big question here.”

She worries about the impact uncertainty about the future of the LTC is having on Londoners who use public transit, “I think that this undermines public confidence tremendously, and I think that’s one of the biggest reasons not to go this route.”

Council is expected to make a final decision about the future of the transit commission on April 1.