The chaos of the Ford government is quite the spectacle. It would be entertaining if it weren’t so dangerous for the province. Last night, Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria reversed a government decision to cut UP Express service in Toronto, directing Metrolinx “not to proceed with these changes.”
Quite literally two minutes later, I submitted a column about the cut. I argued that the decision to move to an express model for half the train’s service — thereby regularly bypassing local stops — reflects a persistent neglect of Toronto’s transit users, a disdain for the city’s workers, and a preference for serving the needs of visitors. That’s how long a column critical of the flip-floppy Ford government lasts these days: negative two minutes.
To be fair, it’s good when governments change course when a policy is ill-advised or isn’t working. When governments constantly reverse course, however, that suggests poor or no consultation, a lack of forethought, botched communications internally or externally (or both), or incompetence.
In October, I wrote about the Ford government’s many, let’s say, changes of heart. The piece was on the occasion of Housing Minister Paul Calandra’s reversal of urban-boundaries expansions. I ran down the many reversals of the Ford years, citing the Greenbelt (a few times), autism care, social-services programing, pandemic restrictions, class sizes, using the notwithstanding clause against workers, and more. The list was long. Now it’s longer.
As I argued in the fall, “When all you do is flip-flop, you lose the benefit of the doubt and the grace of acceptance of your errors.” At some point, we need to accept that the government’s constant course corrections are not a virtue. They are, indeed, a very serious vice.
This time, I want to focus on one particular concern: consultation. Take any number of the government’s policy walk-backs, and you’ll see a familiar issue: a failure to properly consult and take into consideration the interests and preferences of Ontarians. Autism care and pandemic restrictions speak for themselves as examples in which Ford and company were wildly out of step with the people who elected them.
The UP Express cuts — RIP: Monday, April 16 to Tuesday, April 17 — is another glaring example of a failure of government and its appendages (in this case, Metrolinx) to connect with the people whom their policies affect. For a sense of the scale of failure: the transit decision announced Monday immediately spawned an e-petition that had 5,200 signatures by the time the government ordered a return to the status quo Tuesday night.
In his post on X, Sarkaria wrote, “While the intention was to provide a faster option for people travelling between Union and Pearson, I've heard riders’ concerns about servicing Weston and Bloor stations along the UP Express line.”
The UP reversal was the result of a stunning failure to anticipate this obvious reaction of transit users — proof that neither Metrolinx nor the Ford government understands riders in Toronto. That’s an absolute abrogation of duty. Had the government and Metrolinx considered riders and consulted with them and listened, they never would have made this decision in the first place. And they would never have needed to walk it back. There’s a lesson there.
One hopes the government will learn from this experience and, going forward, commit to thorough consultation that is then reflected in policy decisions, even when what the people want is at odds with what the government and its elites would prefer to do.
I’m not saying it’s likely that Ford will adopt a better consultation plan across policy areas for government and its agencies — but if he did, it would sure save everyone a lot of time and energy. It would reduce policy confusion. It would ensure a little predictability in the province. And it would increase trust and satisfaction in Ontario. Plus, more people could be certain of getting to work on time. Wouldn’t that be nice?
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