Here is another reason why there are so many homeless people- and not enough money or jobs for ordinary people:
Here is a news article with a BAD-and most unwelcome political SMELL connected to it! I include some comments of my own in brackets, along with the news report:
Metrolinx chairman called government review 'unwelcome'. By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief. First posted: Monday, August 01, 2016 05:55 PM EDT
Robert Prichard, chairman of Metrolinx. (Jack Boland/Toronto Sun)
TORONTO - A sweeping review of Metrolinx was viewed by the chairman of the province’s troubled transit agency as an “unwelcome” initiative that compromised the organization’s independence.
(Gee-considering that LIE-berals literally had to have guns put to their heads to persuade them to allow investigations into the gas plants, the Mars building, ORNGE. E-health, the price gouging by Ont. Hydro with their crappy not so smart meters-with attendant insults of their own auditor general for telling the truth, the Sudbury election and bribery scandal and their less than candid response to the `negotiating fees` paid to teachers; one has to wonder WHY LIE-berals would suddenly decide a `sweeping review` of Metrolinx would be required? What nasty mess are they seeking out and hoping to bury before the public gets a nose full- THIS TIME?)
Robert Prichard, chairman of Metrolinx’s board of directors, appeared to react with frustration to Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca’s decision to launch a sweeping probe of the agency after a string of high-profile screw-ups and damaging media coverage in early 2016. The Toronto Sun obtained an email that Prichard sent to other Metrolinx board members in early March about the impending review.
“I think it is fair to say the intervention is unwelcome and I regret it has been sent,” Prichard said of a March 9 letter from Del Duca ordering the probe. “It does not reflect well on our agency and it compromises elements of our independence.”
(The Hog thinks Metrolinx `independence` has been compromised? Metrolinx is a political creation OWNED by tax payers and we EXPECT that OUR govt will keep a CLOSE WATCH ON OUR EMPLOYEES and OUR MONEY! The fact that LIE-berals have too often failed BADLY in their obligation to us does not reduce that obligation to keep trying to do right-even though they don’t want to!)
Del Duca ordered the review to improve “oversight and accountability” of the agency.
(To bad Del Duca cannot see the forest for the trees! Metrolinx is a dead/useless govt sponsored holding ground for LIE-beral pals who should have been kicked out of the public trough years ago. WE have had decades of transit studies-with NOTHING built! The time is PAST DUE to pick a subway plan-any subway plan and BUILD SOMETHING! Or at least admit that Toronto Transit has been studied to death and that NOTHING can be built because LIE-berals long ago decided it was more important FOR THEM to buy civil service Hog votes than to build transit! The only reason the Eglinton LRT is going ahead is because former mayor Rob Ford made that hard choice to direct funds to transit and NOT to the city hall gravy train!)
The probe is to look into a series of aspects of Metrolinx operations including how it doles out taxpayer cash through sponsorships, its corporate and administrative costs, ways to increase efficiencies, and ways to improve reporting of its “corporate performance indicators.”
An interim report was to have been completed June 30 with the final draft on Del Duca’s desk Sept. 30.
Prichard told the board Del Duca reached out to him in advance of ordering the review. The minister “substantially softened” and limited the “breadth of his intervention” after they talked over a period of three days, he said.
“Knowing it could have been considerably worse is only modest consolation, but having an open and frank relationship with the minister is certainly appreciated,” Prichard said.
He asked board members not to share Del Duca’s letter but acknowledged the minister could release it himself.
“You (may) read about the letter if the minister decides to use it preemptively with the media,” Prichard said.
In the email, Prichard also said the board will hold a “special meeting” by phone to brief members on the review. He attributed the review to “UP Express issues,” a series of damaging stories about Metrolinx in the Toronto Sun, and the release of information on the cost of UP Express employee uniforms to the Progressive Conservative Party.
All three “collectively provoked the minister to act to try to get ahead of the issues,” Prichard said. “I respect that political judgment, which is his to make.”
Del Duca’s press secretary, Patrick Searle, said last week that the MTO has no plans to release the interim review ahead of a finalized report later this year.
“Metrolinx is fully co-operating with MTO on this review,” he said in an email.
Prichard did not respond to a request for comment, but Metrolinx spokesman Anne Marie Aikins said the agency continues to work “collaboratively and constructively” with the ministry of transportation.
What prompted MTO’s review of Metrolinx?
In early 2016, Metrolinx was hit with one bad headline after the other.
In late February, the agency slashed the price of the Union Pearson Express air-rail link from $27.50 to $12 in a bid to bolster anemic ridership. A few weeks later, UP Express president Kathy Haley resigned.
(Stupid LIE-berals apparently believe that their Hog allies are genuinely concerned about the environment and would want to reduce their carbon foot print by using UP Express. Too bad even LIE-berals don’t realize just how ENTITLED their Hog allies really are! Hogs don’t shlep their bags on a subway-that`s what Town Cars and limousine drivers are for! The people who ALREADY have the biggest carbon footprint in town-and most of them are on a sunshine list-believe they are entitled to DEMAND that others save THEIR environment so Hogs can go on their merry carbon spouting way without being inconvenienced-because-and they REALLY BELIEVE- THEY ARE ENTITLED!)
In March, the Sun revealed that Metrolinx had doled out $1.3 million of taxpayers’ cash over five years to fund studies and conferences. Opposition critics slammed the spending as “another boondoggle.”
(In mild defense of Metrolinx, they are simply supplying studies ordered by the imbeciles at Toronto Socialist Silly Hall-the ones who have made the final choice to fund gravy trains instead of transit! If Silly Hall Hogs stop asking for studies of things they cannot afford to build then Metrolinx will have no reason to exist and can be killed off-thus saving tax money!)
Soon after, a Sun story revealed that Metrolinx had spent $40,000 on uniforms for UP Express employees and then paid an additional $22,000 to have them featured in Toronto Fashion Week. Metrolinx had the cover the designers cost — more than $8,000 — when their plan to participate in the event was derailed.
(Hey now-we all know that Hogs have HIGH standards and don’t want to be served by peons in sweat shirts and jeans-they ARE ENTITLED as I have mentioned-and classy dressed flunkies are just one more entitlement! Its just too bad the Hogs would rather have the Town Car and driver than UP Express!)
The review will focus on five aspects of Metrolinx’s operations:
• Communications between Ontario’s transportation ministry and Metrolinx.
• Development of a process to ensure the MTO approves contributions to external parties related to promotional and marketing sponsorships and studies.
• Provide detailed information on Metrolinx corporate and administration costs.
• Find possible ways to increase “efficiencies and enhance value-for-money” in administration.
• Improve reporting on “corporate performance” and costs between business units.
(I believe what MTO is saying with the above issues for review is that Metrolinx has been acting like a typical LIE-beral political pig at the trough and `sharing` too many crumbs with friends and allies. LIE-berals are getting sensitive to how it looks now that its becoming CLEAR that NO NEW transit will be built as long as LIE-berals run Ontari-owe and as long as Jackass John the Sorry Tory is Toronto mayor-as I have said before he does not have the spine needed to derail the gravy train and get new transit options begun! And of course LIE-berals are starting to look for scape goats now that they have counted the pennies rolled their way by our prime minister-that Boy with nice hair-for Brains! His promises are now proven more empty than govt bank accounts and somebody has to pay for all that public disappointment!)
sjeffords at postmedia