Bruce McCuaig

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.


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


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.


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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



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.


“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.”


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.


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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Bruce McCuaig

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