Act now and join a city-wide effort to save the light rail expansion we were promised!

Dear TEA Supporter,

Starting today, we need your help to join an all-out, city-wide effort to help save Transit City, the transit expansion plan that will bring Light Rail Transit (LRTs) to all corners of our city. We are being joined by other organizations that care about the future of our public transit system who are asking their supporters to contact Toronto MPPs with a simple message: reverse the $4 billion budget cut to Transit City!

If we want the Premier to reverse this bad decision, we need every CouncilWatch reader to contact their MPP and the Premier right now.

As you know, on March 25th, the McGuinty Government broke a promise to Torontonians to build Transit City. The Ontario Budget announced a $4 billion cut in funding for Transit City. At best, this means a five year delay. More likely, this cut will kill the Transit City Plan.

Transit City is too vital to the health of our city to be delayed. That's because delay means:

• More deaths due to smog as Torontonians continue using polluting cars instead of switching to new light rail transit
• More greenhouse gas emissions undermining Toronto's push to combat climate change
• Harming Toronto's economy as dollars are spent battling traffic congestion and paying for the health costs of smog-related illnesses
• Dooming Torontonians in all corners of the city to overcrowding, slow service and gridlock because the system can't handle the demand.
• Harming Toronto's economy by eliminating thousands of promised Transit City jobs

Premier McGuinty promised Torontonians $8 billion to help build Transit City. He promised this money would flow quickly. Now, he's broken his promise.

“The time to make this sort of ambitious realistic investment is now. Our economy demands it. What’s more, our families deserve it, because gridlock not only saps strength out of our economy, it steals time from our families.”

McGuinty Government Action Plan for Rapid Transit Will Move the Economy Forward – June 15, 2007

TEA is part of a group of pro-public transit organizations across the city who are also calling Toronto MPPs and the Premier to reverse this bad decision. If enough of us share our frustrations with our MPPs, it will be clear to them and Premier McGuinty that the political price for delaying Transit City is too high and should force the Government to reverse this very bad decision.

That's why I need you to contact your MPP and the Premier today. With your help, we can put Transit City back on track.

Sincerely,
Franz Hartmann
Executive Director
Toronto Environmental Alliance