The City of Toronto’s ombudsman is calling out how the TTC moved to discontinue tokens and tickets, citing issues with the decision-making process, a lack of public input and not enough documentation.
In a 65-page report released by ombudsman Kwame Addo on Friday, he said his office started getting complaints from residents after the TTC announced in 2024 that it wouldn’t accept token or tickets as a form of payment as of the end of that year. Eventually, that deadline was extended to mid-2025 for the conventional TTC system and the end of 2025 for Wheel-Trans.
The report said the ombudsman’s office staff heard from people who had hundreds of dollars’ worth of tokens or tickets, fearing they’d be out of pocket — sentiments publicly echoed by transit advocates. When officials contacted the transit agency, they said TTC staff and officials couldn’t “explain who made the decision or how it was reached.”
“Some board members and staff pointed to the board, while others believed it was staff. The TTC could not produce records to support either account. Board members and staff were also at odds about who should have made the refund decision in the first place,” the report said.
“During interviews, board members and staff also stated that there were logistical and financial challenges to authenticating fares and implementing a refund or exchange program for discontinued tickets and tokens.”
The report noted TTC board members heard in October, 2024, that there were around 6.7 million tokens and 573,000 tickets — collectively with an estimated worth of $24 million — in circulation, but added that potential cost didn’t take into account fares lost, damaged or kept in personal collections. The transit agency stopped selling tokens and tickets in 2019 as part of a broader push to rely on the Presto fare card system as well as open payments from credit and debit cards.
“We recognize that the TTC has significant fiscal pressures. However, while these challenges are understandable, the TTC failed to take steps to understand the impacts on riders. We found no evidence it collected data, consulted with the public or conducted an equity impact analysis,” the report said.
“More broadly, this investigation showed the TTC lacks a consistent process or practice for making certain fare-related decisions. It also revealed larger concerns about the fairness of the TTC’s decision-making and record-keeping.
“Clear and consistent operational processes are necessary to support transparent, fair and accountable decision-making. Without processes to guide operational decision-making for this type of fare change, it becomes difficult to assess whether the TTC made and applied the refund decision consistently and fairly.”
When it comes to potentially issuing refunds to those with tokens and tickets, the report highlighted how TTC staff denied all requests.
“The TTC justified its decision not to provide refunds by referring some riders to a fare policy document that does not exist. A refund policy that some staff relied on was outdated and unknown to some staff who were involved in considering refund requests,” the document said.
Addo and other officials in his office even noted they heard this situation isn’t a one-off.
“One executive told us that they could ‘swap this [refund] issue out and give you ten others and you’d be asking me the exact same questions today,’” the report said.
The ombudsman’s office issued eight recommendations in response to its months-long investigation, including a robust board-approved process for explaining fare decisions, using equity impact analyses, a public dashboard on directives and requests to TTC staff by the board, clearer reports to the board, and updating various agency policy documents.
“Public institutions must be able to explain how decisions are made, who made them and how it considered the communities that were affected,” the report said.
TTC chair Jamaal Myers and transit agency officials were given a chance to review and respond to the report. A letter of response included in the document from Myers said the TTC was accepting all of the recommendations with a goal of implementation by mid-2027.
“As a public service organization, the TTC recognizes the importance of maintaining public trust, transparency, accountability, and equity in its decision-making and operations,” he wrote in part while acknowledging many of the findings and saying numerous governance processes were, or are being, addressed.
“The TTC remains committed to continuous improvement and views this report as an opportunity to further strengthen and clarify governance practices, increase transparency, and accountability, and enhance customer-focused decision-making across the organization.”
Mayor Olivia Chow was asked about the report during an unrelated news conference Friday afternoon and if there should be retroactive refunds.
“The TTC has learned its lesson and is improving its communication and processes, and that’s what they assured me,” she said.
“I believe they’re able to do so. I’ve been given the assurance by the TTC board that this will not repeat. This was during a time when there was a gap between the [old TTC CEO] and then the new [CEO] coming in, so there was a transition period and unfortunately that happened during that transition period.”
Add CityNews Toronto as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.
