RC118 MayJune 2025 - Magazine - Page 11
permitting processes, overlapping responsibilities between levels of
government for approvals? How do we think about the coordination
and planning of the interruptions of service and the lane closures that
are ultimately going to need to happen in order to do the things that
we’re going to do? And how do we better enable people working
around the clock in respect of these projects, noting and knowing that
that can be highly disruptive to local residents? All these things feel
like urgent questions to me, and I’m looking forward to tackling them
with you.
”I want to end by making what I hope are three commitments that I
can honor in respect of the way in which I aspire that Metrolinx as an
agency continues to show up in this region.
“Number one, I think it would be hugely to everybody’s bene昀椀t
if there was a greater transparency in respect of the status of major
projects in this region and the underlying rationale and value that
goes with the doing of them. So as long as I’m in the chair, I’m going
to work really hard with partners within government to make sure
that we achieve that to the greatest extent. Back to my point about
public disruption, I think people will bear it. I really, really do. I think
the corollary is that they need to know what’s going on at the end of
the day.
“Number two, a focus on value, not just in the sense of the business
case ratios that we de昀椀ne when we think about projects that are going
to be added to the regional transportation plan, but frankly also just
thinking day over day about how an environment where we’ve got
massive ambition, but also signi昀椀cant in昀氀ation and disruptions in the
supply chain, how do we continue to validate and demonstrate
that we’re making decisions that drive best value for taxpayers?
Whether it’s the value engineering that we do at stations
or being intentional and transparent about the choices we’re
making vis-a-vis scope, I think I would like to continue to try to
push for more of an emphasis on that.
“And third is one of humility. Listen, we’ve made a move in
this jurisdiction—and I was a part of it—away from 昀椀xed price
contracting in part because of where the market was going
and the risks that it was willing to bear, but in part because I
think we came to understand that in particular, the application
of P3 models to the transit space led to overly confrontational
relationships between builders and those who were owners.
“All that you’ve seen us do, whether it’s the use of alliances
or progressive models, is about trying to create intentional space
for us to have real and, again, fearless conversations about the
risks that go with transit projects and to plan for constructability
issues upfront. And my pledge is I have very, very smart
technical experts who work for me and far smarter than I will be
on some of the subject matter that goes with rail.
“But I think it’s important for everybody, including owners,
to embrace a certain humility that they don’t know everything.
And that being open-minded in respect of what a better
partnership could look like or a better way of doing things
is absolutely at the heart of what collaboration will be in this
jurisdiction anyway.”
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