BEGUM: Metrolinx needs more than a CEO change, it needs a full public inquiry and an overhaul

QUEEN’S PARK — The Ontario NDP is renewing their call for a public inquiry into Metrolinx. NDP Shadow Transit Minister Doly Begum (Scarborough Southwest) has issued the following statement:

“Metrolinx’s mess has decades of Liberal and Conservative mismanagement behind it. While the Liberal party calls for an inquiry into one project, we know that the Eglinton LRT is a symptom, not the disease. The last Liberal government broke ground on the hole that Doug Ford has buried Ontario’s public transit in, by placing these vital projects into the inexperienced hands of Metrolinx and P3 financiers against the advice of experts.

“This makes it a bit rich to hear their own calls for transparency now, and while their support for an inquiry is welcome regardless, New Democrats will take it a step further; changing one CEO can’t fix the opaque disfunction plaguing Metrolinx — it needs to be completely overhauled.

“Metrolinx’s army of overpaid vice-presidents have flushed billions of taxpayer dollars down the drain, while the Ford government has continuously refused to hold them accountable, like the Liberals before them. Ontarians deserve transparency and they deserve transit projects that actually open. Enough is enough.”