The City of Toronto’s Executive Committee last week rejected a City Councillor’s proposal to replace the current Toronto Transit Commission with a mix of politicians and business people.

Councillor Paul Ainslie’s plan would have left some control of the TTC in the hands of citizens with a business skills and experience — an idea popular among leading candidates for mayor, including George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi.

Ainslie asked the committee to consider filling the nine seats with three members of the public with a business background and six elected officials. Currently, all nine are councillors.

While the committee did not approve Ainslie’s motion, it did approve creating a permanent citizen’s advisory committee for the TTC — similar to the customer-service panel the TTC announced recently.

From the Transit Toronto Newspaper Article Clippings Archives, read:

• Toronto Star column, “Mixing up the TTC board is the better way”, here.
• National Post article, “Proposal for civilian oversight of TTC rejected”, here.