Metrolinx is pledging to open up its decision-making process to greater public scrutiny, after the Star revealed that the ministry of transportation intervened behind the scenes to pressure the agency into approving two new GO stations that weren’t supported by internal reports.One of the stations is in Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca’s riding, the other is part of Mayor John Tory’s “SmartTrack” plan. Following a public session of a meeting of the Metrolinx board on Thursday, board chair Rob Prichard said that from now on the agency intends to publish business cases for transit projects before the board votes on them. A spokesperson for the agency later confirmed that Metrolinx will also post notices of when the board meets behind closed doors, and publish the minutes of those meetings afterward. “One of the good things coming out of this is I think it is advantageous to always release the business case analysis in advance of the board discussing it,” Prichard said. “I’m always in favour of continuous improvement in governance … Our practices are developing and I think it will be a good evolution in our practice to do that.”Metrolinx, an arms-length agency of the provincial government, is in charge of transportation planning in the GTHA and regularly makes decisions that involve billions of dollars of public money and will impact the region’s transit network for generations.The public has so far had limited insight into its internal deliberations, however. Since the start of 2014, the board has held 29 meetings, and 12 of those, more than 40 per cent, were held in private. According to Aikins, dates of the closed-door meetings will be posted online before they happen, except in the case of emergency meetings, in which case they may be posted afterward. The minutes will also be posted, although they will be reviewed to remove sensitive information related to privacy and co ...
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