Gary M. Webster is the former Chief General Manager of the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada.

Education and early career

Webster graduated from Queen's University as a civil engineer in 1975 and joined the

soon afterwards. He served in various supervisory and management roles at the TTC, including in the subway and equipment maintenance departments, in the Transportation department, as Manager - Materials and Procurement (1986–1990), Manager - Service Planning (1990–1994), Manager - Human Resources (1994–1996), and General Manager - Operations (1996–2006).

TTC Chief General Manager

On June 10, 2006 he replaced

Rick Ducharme Richard C. Ducharme P.Eng. (born 1948) has served as an administrator for several Canadian transit and transportation authorities, most recently as General Manager of Transportation for the City of Edmonton. Ducharme graduated from the University ...

as Chief General Manager on an interim basis after Ducharme's resignation. A year later, on June 27, 2007, Webster was confirmed in the post on a permanent basis. He was the first TTC Chief General Manager to be promoted from within the organization; all five previous holders of the position had been hired from outside the TTC.

Termination

In February 2012, Webster was called before

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

with regard to the future of transit planning in the city. He answered questions relating to whether subway or light rail transit would be more favorable. His testimony was not supportive of Mayor

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's position that underground was the only way for Toronto to move forward. In early February 2012 TTC Commissioners

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and

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signed a petition for a special Commission meeting that was held on February 21 to discuss a "personnel issue". The "personnel issue" related to Webster's future as General Manager at the TTC, and he was fired. A vote by the board ousted Webster 5-4. His firing provoked outrage by some fellow Toronto city councillors. On February 23, 2012, the ''Toronto Star'' reported that according to his contract, Webster would be paid more than $560,000 in salary (plus benefits) over two years, in compensation for being fired without just cause.

References

''TTC Coupler''
June 1996, Vol 71 No 5 {{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Gary Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Queen's University at Kingston alumni Toronto Transit Commission general managers