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8 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE
interaction
Bruce McCuaig is the President and CEO of
Metrolinx, the agency tasked with improving the
coordination and integration of all modes of
transportation in the Greater Toronto and
Hamilton Area. The organization’s mission is to
champion, develop and implement an integrated
transportation system for the region which
enhances prosperity, sustainability and quality of
life. Metrolinx launched The Big M ove, a regional
transportation plan, in September 2008.
Bruce began his career in public service in 1984,
and has worked in areas involving land use
planning and policy, municipal policy, and
transportation planning, policy and operations.
He spent 10 years with the Ontario Ministry of
Municipal Aff airs and Housing, and 15 years with
the Ministry of Transportation, where his fi nal role
as Deputy Minister made him responsible for
leading the 4,000 public servants dedicated to
ensuring a safe and effi cient provincial
transportation system.
BY THOMAS BARAKATPolicy Advisor, OGRA
OGRA’s Th omas
Barakat had a chat
with Bruce (above)
to gain a better
understanding of
the man tasked with
delivering mass
transit systems to
the country’s most
congested region.
OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE / 9
Bruce McCuaig has always been
somewhat of an intriguing
individual to me. He has one of the
toughest tasks at hand – delivering
mass transit systems in the GTHA –
but doesn’t have control over
important aspects of project delivery
such as how to fund them. I chose to
interview Bruce because surely a man
who has to deal with so many
diff erent and high-profi le individuals
would have much to say. I wasn’t
disappointed.
Personal
I wanted to get a feel for the type of
person Bruce was so I asked him to
explain what a typical day was like in
his shoes. To nobody’s surprise he
began by telling me that his commute
to Metrolinx HQ from Mississauga
was a multimodal one. He begins his day by walking to his
local GO station and hops on the GO Train downtown
which he explains to me helps him because he’s both a
customer as well as the executive responsible for GO
Transit.
He used fi ve adjectives to describe his typical day: full,
lengthy, diverse, engaging, and rewarding.
He explained that it’s a full day because there’s a lot going
on in terms of the regional transit and transportation
system. It’s a lengthy day because consultations with the
public normally take place in the evening outside of regular
work hours. It’s a diverse day because he deals with buses,
trains, subways, LRTs, BRTs, cycling and other forms of
active transportation, as well as land use, growth, and
economy – all on a typical day. It’s also an engaging day
because everything is done in partnership with others –
municipalities, transit agencies, other orders of
government, and private partners. It’s a rewarding day
because so much of the focus is in on progress and on
delivering results.
I asked Bruce to tell me about the McCuaig family so I
could better understand the person he is outside of his
Metrolinx role. He boasted that he’s been a lifetime
resident of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area
(GTHA) – born, raised, schooled, and worked in the region
for over 31 years. He’s lived both in the suburban and
downtown parts of the region. He explained to me that he
has a wonderfully supportive wife who has a busy and
rewarding career as well as two children who are now
young adults. He has entered the stage of his life where
he’s watching his children make important life decisions in
terms of education, careers, and relationships. He proudly
states that he’s at a great moment with his family in terms
of how they’ve grown over the years and insists that they
love their lives in the Toronto region.
10 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE
interaction
Policy
Following my opening questions to Bruce, I moved on
to policy-related questions with hopes of better
understanding how he approaches transportation and
transit projects.
I was interested in asking Bruce how he balances the
long-term process of building transportation
infrastructure and the short-term political life cycle
without becoming incredibly frustrated. Bruce
explained that he believes that an organization like
Metrolinx is the keeper of the long-term vision.
Metrolinx also has the responsibility to articulate the
evidence and the rationale for why a particular path is
the correct path for the development and
implementation of infrastructure. Conversely, he
understands that Metrolinx serves governments at all
levels who have political terms to worry about and
recognizes that these terms are not necessarily in
alignment with the longer-term plans and the delivery
of the transportation system.
Bruce believes that the role of Metrolinx is to provide
the best advice to government at all levels about why
they think a path is the right one to go on, but also to
recognize that those governments have legitimate
needs to see outcomes and results in what is more
typically a four-year horizon whether it’s a municipal
council, a provincial government, or a federal
government. Metrolinx must be developing programs
that provide politicians with opportunities to
demonstrate what their vision has been able to
accomplish in the lifetime of their government.
A particularly diffi cult challenge highlighted by Bruce
is the alignment of the terms of diff erent orders of
government and the fact that they’re not always the
same. Th ere have been times in his 30 years where
there are elections in successive years at all levels of
government. He’s certainly pleased that in Ontario
both municipal and provincial governments are
entering fresh mandates. As there is alignment in
these terms it gives Metrolinx the opportunity to work
collectively with those two orders of government to
deliver outcomes that governments can be proud to
say they provided leadership and direction for in four
years’ time.
Th e bottom line is that I believe that an organization like Metrolinx is the keeper of the long-term vision.
As Bruce and I are fellow Mississaugans I wanted to
press him on why municipalities outside of downtown
cores have been reluctant to embrace cycling and
cycling infrastructure – particularly separated bicycle
lanes. He objected to the premise of my question and
argued that there are in fact cycling lanes popping up
in the environment outside of Toronto including
Mississauga. Bruce believes that it has become more
apparent in recent years that more choices must be
12 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE
available to meet the needs of diff erent parts of the
population and active transportation is an important
part of that. Having good pedestrian access to transit
and having good cycling access is part of a well-
balanced transportation system.
Bruce believes that some individuals like to argue that
we need one particular type of transit for the entire
region when in reality we need to be supporting a
multi-modal transportation system which includes
active transportation. When Metrolinx designs
mobility hubs they bring in the role of active
transportation in the early stages of planning.
Although Bruce’s response brought up many good
points, I was unsatisfi ed because in the suburbs a
bicycle lane consists of a few lines of faded paint on
the side of the road, which in my opinion are quite
unsafe and do not promote cycling. So I pressed him
further on this and referred to the active
transportation utopia that is known as Amsterdam.
Bruce responded by arguing that cities such as
Amsterdam have been building their active
transportation infrastructure for decades whereas the
GTHA is just not as mature in the development of this
component of infrastructure. GTHA municipalities are
working on building these networks and it takes time.
He reiterated that it is important to strike a balance
between all diff erent types of transit rather than
focusing on just one.
Putting on my economist’s cap, I asked Bruce why
congestion charges similar to those successfully
implemented in cities such as London and Stockholm
(even with major opposition prior to implementation)
could ever be done in the GTHA. He explained that in
the spring of 2013 Metrolinx submitted a report on
the investment strategy that looked at a whole range
of measures and tools that could be used to generate
revenue to support investment in transit and
transportation infrastructure. Th e government chose
to use the existing revenue tools to make those
investments and Metrolinx’s focus is on implementing
the plan based upon the funding commitments the
province has given.
When developing the investment strategy report for
the province, Metrolinx researched practices in
jurisdictions around the world and the various tools
that are used in diff erent marketplaces. Bruce argued
that how infrastructure is funded in other cities and
regions is really a factor of their history, tradition, and
culture and what has worked in one particular
marketplace or community is not necessarily
transferable to the GTHA. Metrolinx did not
recommend that the government move forward with
the implementation of schemes like those in London
and Stockholm; however they were identifi ed as
potential opportunities in the future.
Since I had Bruce talking about international cities I
decided to ask him whether there was a city or region
INTERACTION WITH BRUCE MCCUAIG
Th e good news for me and I think the good news for people in this region is that we have a government that has decided that regardless of how the money comes into the system, investing in transportation infrastructure is critical provincially and here in
the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and we’re going to continue making those investments.
OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE / 13
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in the world that he considers the “gold standard” in
terms of transit and transportation systems. He began
by stating that there were many cities around the
world which have a much longer history of investing in
transit such as Paris, London, and New York City.
Bruce believes there are elements of these systems that
the GTHA is moving towards and the key element that
he takes from these cities is that they have very large
and diverse transportation systems rather than relying
on a single mode of transportation. Th e success in
some of these regions and cities around the world is a
diverse mix of diff erent kinds of transportation
solutions that match the reality that in diff erent parts
of their regions they have diff erent needs. He
reiterates that there isn’t a single solution that fi ts
everybody’s needs because the kind of travel, the
density, and the nature of the urban form is diff erent
across all these cities and regions just as it is diff erent
across the GTHA.
But I wanted to know if there was one city or region
that he considered “the gold standard”.
Bruce argued that the three he already mentioned
(Paris, London, New York City) were really quite
impressive and also had similarities to the GTHA.
However, he wanted to push the point that the GTHA
is much younger than these cities. “Paris and London
started building subways over one hundred years ago
– what we started building in the 1950s, they were
starting to build in the 1890s” said Bruce. He doesn’t
look at these cities and wishes the GTHA were more
like them because he truly believes that it’s only a
matter of time before we will have those very complex
and dense networks of rapid transit across the GTHA.
Don Iveson, the Mayor of Edmonton, has stated that
“In the 19th century nation-building was building
railroads, in the 20th century it was building highways
and airports, and in the 21st century it will be building
mass transit systems in our cities.” I wanted to know
what Bruce’s thoughts were on this statement. He
INTERACTION WITH BRUCE MCCUAIG
14 / OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE
responded by stating that as Canada becomes a more
urban area, it is moving to an environment where 80%
of its population will be living in cities around the
country. Cities by their very defi nition have a more
limited landmass in which to have large land
consumers like highways and roads and so transit is
going to become an even more important part of
Canadians’ lives and communities.
He then countered my quote with a quote from
Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá,
Columbia: “An advanced city is not a place where the
poor move about in cars, rather it’s where the rich use
public transportation.” Bruce believes there’s a lot of
truth in this statement. One of the benefi ts available
to Canadians and more specifi cally to residents of the
GTHA is that there is a public transportation system
that is used by and serves the needs of all walks of life.
He believes that the future success of our urban areas
depends on this.
I asked Bruce if he believed that Canada needed a
national transportation strategy and he argued that
there is a strong role for such a strategy in this
country. “As Canada is more urban it is not just about
moving people, it’s also about how we move goods in
our cities, through our provinces, and across the
country. It’s also about how to sustain investments in
infrastructure and ensure that standards of asset
management and evidence-based decision making are
applied” said Bruce. He believes that the Government
of Canada does have a role to play.
Future
Following the policy-based questions I inquired a bit
about the future of Bruce McCuaig. I wanted to know
how much longer he planned to remain at Metrolinx
and whether or not there was a particular project he
wanted to see completed before moving on to other
things. Bruce quickly responded that he had no plans
to leave his role at Metrolinx as it’s one of the most
rewarding and challenging roles that he’s had in his
career. He fi nds that it is an exciting time to be part of
Metrolinx and would like to remain as long as the
Board of Directors will have him.
However, there are specifi c projects that he feels quite
aligned to and looks forward to seeing their
conclusion: the Union-Pearson Express connecting
Canada’s two largest passenger hubs (Union Station
and Pearson Airport), the transformation of Union
Station, the Eglinton Crosstown that will open in 2020
across the midtown of the City of Toronto, and the
deployment of Presto on the TTC which will be
completed by 2017.
Bruce went on to tell me that there’s a whole range of
really exciting projects that he couldn’t take credit for
because it’s the Metrolinx team in partnership with
the municipalities and transit agencies who are doing
wonderful work in delivering them. He said that he
and his team will be able to look back and be very
proud to have had such signifi cant infl uence in shaping
infrastructure for the GTHA and that’s the really
exciting part of his mission.
INTERACTION WITH BRUCE MCCUAIG
“I THINK THERE IS A STRONG ROLE FOR A NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY IN CANADA. AS I SAID WE’RE MORE URBAN. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT MOVING PEOPLE, IT’S ALSO ABOUT HOW WE MOVE GOODS IN OUR CITIES, THROUGH OUR PROVINCES, ACROSS THE COUNTRY.”
OGRA MILESTONES WINTER ISSUE / 15
In previous articles that I’ve read about
Bruce, I learned that he was inspired by
the passion of his high school urban issues
teacher, Mrs. Wilton. I asked him if he
could see himself at the front of a
classroom inspiring the next generation of
urban planners. Without hesitation, Bruce
boasted that one of the parts of the job
that he enjoys most is when he’s asked to
come and speak to programs at high
schools, colleges, and universities. He likes
to share his experiences and speak about
why he believes it’s important for everyone
to be aware of transit and transportation
issues.
Bruce then decided to share a personal story with me
about Mrs. Wilton’s class that he hadn’t shared in any
previous interviews. Mrs. Wilton’s class was important
to him in another way because that’s where he met his
wife (McCuaig children: Th at is the story of How Bruce
Met Your Mother). Th e class was memorable to Bruce
because of the kind of teacher that she was and what
she got him interested in, but it was clearly also
interesting for other more personal reasons as well. I
then quipped with Bruce that he really got a lot out of
that class. He agreed.
And thus sums my chat with Mr. Bruce McCuaig, the
President and CEO of Metrolinx.
INTERACTION WITH BRUCE MCCUAIG
In the spring we’ll be opening up the Union-Pearson Express
connecting Canada’s two largest passenger hubs, Union Station and Pearson Airport, we’re transforming Union Station right now, we’re building the Eglinton Crosstown that will open in 2020 across the midtown of the City of Toronto, we’re deploying Presto on the TTC and in 2017 we’ll be completing that process. There’s a whole range of really exciting projects that I can’t take credit for, it’s the team who’s delivering these in partnership with the municipalities and transit systems that are working with us.
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