The Villager

It's not just that the city is on the cusp of receiving a huge infusion of provincial funding to build many kilometres of light rail from one end to another; or that the Toronto Transit Commission is embarking on an ever-more-massive refresh of its rolling stock. The manner in which it's doing so is also advancing, towards a more transparent and competitive model that on balance can only mean good things.

Case in point: the Toronto Transit Commission's decision to push ahead with a request for proposal for a huge purchase of low-floor streetcars to replace the city's aging and outdated fleet of high-floor ones.

Doing so will likely cost as much as a subway. The TTC needs 204 of the new streetcars just to replace the existing fleet, and that alone will cost a billion dollars - as big a light rail contract as has even been signed in North America. When the city's light rail network starts expanding in earnest, there'll be more on order - pushing the cost (or investment, if you like) into the stratosphere.

Smaller contracts than this have been matters of bitter controversy in the recent past. The $674 million contract to purchase new subway cars from Montreal-based Bombardier without competition turned into an election issue last year. The controversy over the TTC and Toronto Council decision wasn't enough to unseat Mayor David Miller, but the objections raised by opposition councillors were clearly enough to get everyone's attention.

Because until then, the TTC's procurement policy had been moving steadily along a well-worn rail of its own. With a reliable supplier in Bombardier, and the jobs that it created in its Thunder Bay plant, few saw any reason to cast the net further afield and think seriously about changing suppliers - particularly suppliers who might be taking the jobs that the massive public investment would create offshore.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Toronto Transit Commission settled on a balance - keeping the request for proposal open, but delivering a nod toward Canadian content that's as dramatic as the TTC feels it can manage: requiring that 25 per cent of the project be delivered in-country. Any more than that, warned consultants Booz Allen Hamilton, and the TTC may as well just give this contract to Bombardier too.

It's a good balance. The fact is that the City of Toronto cannot be or be seen to be in a special supplier relationship with any single firm - whether the fact of it is enough to tip the balance in a mayor's race or not.

At the same time, there is good reason to look to domestic suppliers for huge public-sector contracts like this one. With the high-flying dollar, Canada is in no position to be complacent about its manufacturing sector's ability to keep jobs alive through exports alone.

The 25 per cent Canadian content requirement will make sure that whoever offers the best design and price, it will be Canadians who reap the benefits.

And any way you look at it, that is progress.