EddieRobar

In 2017 ETS signed a $31.4 million deal with Vix Technology of Australia to supply and install fare machines at LRT stations, transit centres, on trains and buses. The deal with Vix Techonolgy involved a two stage fulfillment the contract. The first stage began in 2019 with the Vix I-Val machines that was a “closed” payment system that only worked with the Arc card. The second stage of deal is now being fulfilled with installment of the open-payment (tap-to-pay) machines which the existing validators across the network within the first six months of 2025. In a recent interview city manager Eddie Robar attempted to answer the questions many people have about why the two stage contract.

Read the article below to better understand why the City did what it did.

One of the things that politicians and bureaucrats at all levels of government need to be constantly reminded of when planning how to best serve the needs of their jurisdictions ...taxpayers are the one and only source of money you have to work with. Reading about Edmonton's "fiscal gap" in the article below indicates that past and present mayors, councillors and bureaucrats have found it too easy to spend other peoples' (taxpayers) money and have overspent on questionable projects. With the lack of funds and inability to pay for the expenditures, they have in effect now saddled the citizens of Edmonton with the obligation to pay the debt through their taxes, which will probably be increased.

Other ways of servicing the current debt are being considered, and hopefully it doesn't override the greatest need, which is for the mayor, councillors and bureaucrats to be fiscally responsible and only budget what can be paid for without burdening taxpayers with increased taxes. The next civic election is about a year away and hopefully there will be a slate of candidates whose platform includes being fiscally responsible.