(Photo: Photosapience)

Ho-ly smokes! According to CBC News, after Mayor Miller's proposal to increase land transfer and vehicle registration taxes was put on hold by the City Council, the TTC has been told to cut its budget by $30 million this year and $100 million in 2008. This is likely to lead to unprecedented cutbacks of the TTC service which will include cancelling 20 bus routes and closing down the entire Sheppard subway line (which has only been in service since 2002 and required one billion dollars and eight years to construct).

It also means the fares will go up (AGAIN!) and any expansion projects will be suspended. So much for the new streetcars and the ambitious LRT network, not to mention high-speed ferries! An emergency meeting of the TTC board is scheduled for Friday to discuss and formalize the proposed cuts. Suddenly the land transfer tax isn't looking so bad....

What a total and absolute shocker! The same city that tries to bill itself as environmentally friendly, and the same city that just unveiled the most ambitions environmental plan in North America is the very same city that is about to deliver such an awful blow to our public transit system?

Am I the only one who sees here a cognitive dissonance so intense that I worry about my brain short-circuiting?? Ah, well, another good reason to ride a bike - except that I'm afraid that the majority of Torontonians will make a rather different choice when they decide to give up on the "new and deteriorated" TTC. Say hi to more cars on the road, and more congestion and smog, everyone! The city is about to get a little less livable...