Transit Board’s Mandate Full Of Holes: THE VOTER

It’s not clear who these people in the OC Transpo transit advisory board are providing their advice to and what type of advice is going to be sought.

Are they going to be answering questions from OC Transpo or the transit commission? Or will they be telling transit people their opinions on topics of their own choosing? If OC Transpo or the transit commission are creating the questions, you can be sure they won’t ever ask any questions that would have answers they don’t want to hear. That would also give them the opportunity to fill the advisors’ time with topics that are safe and comfortable for the ‘listeners’. ‘Listeners’ is in quotes because there is no guarantee that anybody will truly be listening to any of the advice never mind bits that might be inconvenient.

Will there be public minutes kept of the meetings of this group? Will we, the public, ever see the advice that’s given or will we be given OC Transpo’s interpretation of what was said and which advice they want us to hear about? Is this a secret group that OC Transpo will use for its own purposes? Will they produce pronouncements and tell us that the advisory group told them that was the way to go? We will, of course, have no way to verify the information they say they got from the advisory group.

Are the members of the group allowed to speak publicly about their work with OC Transpo or are they sworn to secrecy? How convenient it would be for OC Transpo and the transit commission to have a hand-picked group of people that they can solicit advice from on their own pre-determined subjects and then be able to tell the public that whatever they want to do has been sanctioned by their advisors. We all know how easy it is to word a question so that it will elicit the answer you are looking for. If what you hear back isn’t precisely what you want to get, then you can massage it until it fits your desired outcome.

Am I suggesting that OC Transpo and/or the Transit Commission would do such a thing? Do I question if this was their purpose and motivation in setting up the advisory group? Yes.

The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.

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