Item - 2026.TTS4.1

The Strategic Planning Committee:

1. Received this report for information.

2. Requested TTC staff to include in the Phase 1 work, ideas and opportunities for public and intergovernmental advocacy informed by Canadian and global best practices. 

Through the 2026 TTC Budget, and 2025 Strategic Planning Committee meetings, the TTC identified operating and capital budget pressures over the short, medium and long- term. Various strategies are utilized each year to balance the operating budget, and to set a ten-year capital budget and plan that addresses the most immediate and critical priorities of the organization. The short-term balancing of the TTC’s financial pressures would not have been achieved without a substantial City subsidy in recent years, including the Ontario-Toronto New Deal providing three-years of operating funding support, and project specific capital grant funding from the provincial and federal governments.

For instance, the injection of $5.1 billion in the 2025-2034 Capital Plan, which was predominantly city funding, reduced the TTC’s state-of-good-repair backlog by $3.9 billion, or nearly 50%. However, fleet plan changes, asset condition assessments and cost estimate increases have increased the SOGR backlog in the 2026-2035 Capital Plan to a projected $6.1 billion at the end of the 10-year planning window. Funding for new trains, buses and streetcars by other orders of government addressed immediate fleet needs, and the operating support through COVID, have kept the system going. While these efforts had significant impact in the immediate term, the TTC still has a long-term financial problem due to a fiscal framework that has not evolved at the same pace as the scale, complexity, and expectations of a world class transit system.

This cycle of finding immediate term solutions to the budgetary pressures of the organization is one repeated annually. With each successive year the balancing act produces increasingly limited opportunities to find new efficiencies and revenue generation opportunities. The TTC’s aging assets continue to drive state-of good repair investment needs to maintain existing levels of service, while struggling to fund capacity enhancements to keep up with growth.

Each year, we indicate a new fiscal framework for public transit is required that is predictable and sustainable. The purpose of this report is to outline the work the TTC is undertaking to develop a recommended approach on a new fiscal framework for public transit in Canada’s largest city.

The objective of developing a formal Long-Term Financial Plan (LTFP) for the TTC is to provide alternative fiscal and service scenarios for decision-makers to consider with a deliberate view of a longer-term horizon of the organization. The LTFP will establish a recommended framework for achieving financial sustainability and outline the specific actions within the TTC’s control based on the current financial and governance model of the organization, and opportunities where government partner support may be required.

This report outlines the objectives, key areas of analysis and options that will be explored as the TTC formalizes a long-term financial plan for the organization. This includes consideration of the opportunities and investments required to support ridership growth (see Ridership Growth Strategy), and ongoing intergovernmental partnership support.