Establishment of a Transit Commission

Post date: Dec 9, 2010 3:50:47 PM

The 2010-2014 term of council will replace the transit committee with a transit commission which will consist of 8 councillors and 4 members of the public and will meet on the 3rd Wed of every month.

The relationship between roles of City Council and the transit commission is described in the following Report to council. An approximate summary of this document follows:

The following topics will continue to be dealt with at the council level:

• labour relations/contract negotiations with OC Transpo

• approval of OC Transpo annual operating and capital budgets

• Fare setting

• any issues/reports related to the DOTT project (Governance for the DOTT project will be decided by council in Q1 2011)

• receiving an annual report on transit operations produced by the Transit Commission

• receiving and approval of transit strategies produced by the Transit Commission

Outside of those main topics, the Transit Commission will be responsible for the following topics:

• proposing annual operating and capital budget for approval by council

• managing costs and projects within the budget envelope approved by council

• reporting to council when costs beyond the budget are encountered

• developing strategic plans related to transit matters (subject to council review and approval)

• advising council on transit related matters within the Transportation Master Plan

• citizen members to be appointed by March 2011 (it does not elaborate on who the appointment decision rests with)

• Transit Commission Chair will also be a member of the Finance and Economic Development Committe (ie. the merging of the Audit, Budget, and Finance Committee with the Corporate Services Committee)

Note, responsibility for Environmental Assessments related to transit projects would fall under the review of the Transportation Committee (as they already possess EA expertise arising from EA's related to road and other transportation related projects).