Over the weekend the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) went out of commission because of a surprise last-minute legal strike. Weekend commuters were left in the lurch and 1.4 million daily users were left to wonder how they would get to work come Monday morning. Thankfully, provincial politicians made it a top priority to pass back-to-work legislation as quickly as possible, appointing an arbitrator while PC leader John Tory proposed the addition of an 'ability to pay' clause as a defence of the taxpayer.

For too many years the political goal in Toronto has been labour peace instead of improved quality of service. This desire to avoid conflict has perpetuated the status quo -- a decline in service delivery at increased costs. Toronto is not alone in facing transit challenges. Other cities, however, are making progress through innovative means and competitive bidding for routes, including; Perth, Adelaide, Los Angeles, San Diego, Goteborg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm, Melbourne, Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland and Las Vegas. Toronto should follow their lead to allow more competition and private sector and not-for-profit involvement.

The strike by Amalgamated Transit Union 113 came despite an overly generous contract offered by the city and approved by union leadership. The city had caved in to union demands in all areas -- offering workers a 3% a year wage increase for each of the next three years (more than twice the rate of inflation); sick pay top up to 100% (beyond what the Workplace Safety and Inspection Board provides for all other workers); and the GTA clause guaranteeing that drivers will be the highest paid in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The reasons for the strike are rumoured to revolve around two items: first that the new GTA clause is offered only to drivers, but not all workers; and second, maintenance workers fear contracting out.

The GTA clause, or the 'top-banana' clause, is unprecedented in labour agreements and exposes Toronto taxpayers to unpredictable costs increases. If drivers in Mississauga, for example, get a settlement paying them more than those in Toronto then automatically the Toronto drivers would be increased above the Mississauga level, making them top banana in pay. This clause should be removed.

With respect to contracting out, that is exactly what the city should look to do in order to reduce labour costs.

Commuters in Toronto are being held hostage by a money-hungry union looking to soak as much from taxpayers as it can. The TTC operating budget is in excess of $1.1-billion a year, of which approximately 80% is salaries, wages and benefits. One way for taxpayers to get better service is to end the monopoly and allow for competition in running some of the services. Private operators are ready to provide such service. As recently as 2006, a private company proposed to run buses along Lake shore Boulevard to downtown. Increased use of new technology would also reduce labour costs. Regrettably, the unions are getting in the way of these kinds of advances and the mayor is doing nothing about it.

In 2003 when Mayor David Miller was elected, the city budget stood at $6.4-billion. After four years he has ratcheted spending up to $8.2-billion -- a 28% increase. Not surprisingly, much of this increase is a result of overly generous labour contracts. Dozens of unions contributed to the mayor's election campaigns. They correctly thought they were helping elect a friend and ally. Labour settlements to date prove they were right. And it is taxpayers who are on the hook for these generous agreements. To pay for these union contracts, the city has acquired ground-breaking new taxing powers and executed them by imposing a new garbage tax, a new vehicle registration tax and a new land transf er tax; combined generating over $400-million a year in new tax revenue.

There is talk that the TTC should be made an essential service like police, fire and health workers. While this may speed service resumption in the short term, such actions fail to address long term fixes required to improve quality of service. Instead of just focusing on getting unions back to work through more concessions, the politicians should, instead, focus on ways to reduce costs while improving services. Commuters and taxpayers should be top of mind not, union salaries. - Kevin Gaudet is the Ontario communications director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.