Ontario Transit Funding Forum
Toronto Metropolitan University - Ted Rogers School of Management
September 22, 2025 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Speakers
(In order of appearance)
Matthias Sweet
TransForm Lab, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University
Matthias Sweet is an Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Undergraduate Programs in the School of Urban & Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also the Co-Director of the Transportation and Urban Form Research Laboratory (TransForm Lab), where he and his students do basic and applied research related to transportation planning. His research interests are related to transportation policy, travel behaviour, land use planning, and urban economics. In previous work, he has investigated the role of transportation services in transportation-land use interactions, regional spatial structure and change, firm location decisions, travel behaviour and services, and regional economic growth and restructuring. Currently, he is working on projects related to transportation finance and funding, sustainable mobility, and emerging mobility technologies.
Quito Maggi
Mainstreet Public Research
Quito Maggi serves as the President and CEO of Mainstreet Public Research, a nationally trusted firm which is regularly used by governments at all levels and featured in nationally syndicated news organizations. A graduate from Carleton University with a degree in Economics, Quito Maggi began his professional career as an analyst in the investment industry. He spent his time measuring market forces, segmenting investor demographic characteristics, and building algorithms of investor behaviour. During this period of time, Quito became a trusted advisor and manager for municipal, provincial, and federal campaigns. In these roles, he implemented the analytical techniques he learned in the investment industry to help his candidates win.
Karen Cameron
Ontario Public Transit Association
Karen Cameron, CEO of the Ontario Public Transit Association (OPTA) has over 30 years of progressively responsible governance, policy development, issue management, regulatory, procurement and advocacy experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has led trade associations in the transit, taxi, school bus and motor coach industries, and has been with OPTA since 2015. Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in public administration and economics as well as a Management Certificate from the University of Calgary.
David Cooper
Leading Mobility Consulting
David Cooper is the founder and principal of Leading Mobility, a transportation planning firm that offers strategic and planning support for public transit, infrastructure delivery, stakeholder support, and government relations projects and initiatives. Over the past 15 years, he has contributed to numerous transformative transportation initiatives across Canada, including
planning the Ontario Line Subway and King Street Pilot in Toronto; procurement support for the Broadway Subway Project and development of TransLink’s Battery-Electric bus program in Vancouver; implementation of LRT/BRT expansion and regional transit in Calgary. David has authored several important reports, including “This is the End of the Line: Reconstructing Transit Operating Funding” in 2024 and the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s COVID-19 National Recovery Strategy in 2021. As an adjunct faculty member at the University of Calgary, University of Toronto, and Toronto Metropolitan University, he instructs future planners on transportation policy, planning processes, and public consultation. David was the recipient of the ‘President’s Award for Young Planner of the Year’ granted by the Canadian Institute of Planners, the ‘Individual Leadership Award’ from the Canadian Urban Transit Association, and received Mass Transit’s ‘Top 40 Under 40 Award’ in North America. He holds a Bachelor and Masters in planning from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Andrew McCurran
TransLink
Andrew McCurran is Director of Strategic Planning & Policy at TransLink, the regional transportation authority for Metro Vancouver, where he has worked for 17 years. He leads teams responsible for: developing the region’s long-term transportation strategy and key policy direction; supporting complex decision-making processes; leading TransLink’s 10-year Investment Plans and associated funding strategy; and prototyping and piloting new transportation technologies and business models especially related to the convergence of automation, digital connectivity, electrification, and shared mobility. Andrew’s previous roles at TransLink included work on streets planning, bicycle planning, transit facility design, and transit-oriented community planning. He holds a Masters Degree in Planning from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Arts and Science (Honours) Degree from McMaster University.
Ludwig Desjardins
Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain
Ludwig Desjardins is the Executive Director of Development and Performance at Montreal’s Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM). Working in the field of public transportation for over 15 years, he has held various positions at ARTM, the Agence métropolitaine de transport and exo, where he was Senior Director of Corporate Strategy within the senior management team. His diverse experience is the result of involvement in various major projects in strategic planning, financing, major project studies and project portfolio management. Actively involved in the public transportation sector, he is active within the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and was the recipient of the Guy-Paré Prize in recognition of his involvement in the Association québécoise des transports (AQTr). He holds a PhD in Planning and Transportation, completed jointly at the Université de Montréal and the École des ponts et chaussées de Paris.
Victor Copetti
TransForm Lab, School of Urban and Regional Plannning
Bio coming soon!
Kohbod Barani
TransForm Lab, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University
Bio coming soon!
Angie Clark
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113
Angie Clark is the Executive Vice-President of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113, the labour union representing 12,000 operations and maintenance workers of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Growing up in a union home, Angie learned the importance of unions at a very young age. She has been a proud ATU Local 113 member since beginning her career as a TTC bus operator in 2009 and has been actively engaged in union activities since 2014. In 2016, Angie was elected to the women’s committee of the union. She has also served as an elected member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee for her work location and two terms on the union’s By-Law Committee. The first woman to be elected to the position of Vice-President of ATU Local 113, Angie is committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of all union members and oversees their Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and long-term disability cases. In addition to her work at ATU Local 113, she has been an elected delegate to the ATU International and ATU Canada conventions. Angie was recognized by ATU International and is the elected vice-chair of the ATU International Women’s Caucus.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Visions for Ending the Transit Funding Emergency
Andrew Miller
Paladin Consulting
Andrew Miller is a consultant, advisor, and speaker on innovative mobility and smart cities. He has 20 years of experience spanning academia, government and the private sector. Andrew was formerly the Toronto mobility lead for Sidewalk Labs, Google’s smart-city firm, where he led development of innovative mobility systems for a proposed “city of the future” on the Toronto waterfront. He has served as an invited expert on automated driving, and the future of mobility generally, to global audiences. Andrew’s past consultancy clients include governments, land developers, and international airports. Andrew co-authored the white paper The Driverless Endgame: Policy and Regulation for Automated Driving and is co-authoring the second edition of The End of Driving (Elsevier). Andrew sits on the boards of a variety of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations that aim to improve mobility networks in the GTHA. He holds a B.A. from McGill University, an M.A. from Yale University, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Visions for Ending the Transit Funding Emergency
Michael Roschlau
Strategic Adviser on Public Transit and Urban Mobility
Michael Roschlau is a strategic adviser in the field of public transit and urban mobility. His career has been dedicated to promoting efficient and effective public transit, most recently as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA). During his 29 years at CUTA, Michael became known as a strong advocate for public transit and was instrumental in creating Transit Vision 2040 – a generational vision which has become a national blueprint for transit development in Canada. Since his retirement from CUTA in 2015, Michael has acted as strategic adviser to the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), the Canadian Transit Heritage Foundation, the Urban Robotics Foundation and Vicinity Motors, as well as undertaking numerous public and private sector consulting assignments across Canada. He holds a PhD in transport geography from the Australian National University, as well as a Master of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Visions for Ending the Transit Funding Emergency
More speakers to be announced soon!
Adrian Lightstone
CPCS
Adrian Lightstone is Senior Vice President, Advanced Markets (Canada, UK, US) at CPCS. His expertise is unlocking major infrastructure projects for clients, and has led several complex multidisciplinary transportation projects relating to regional transportation, intercity rail, transit and freight. Having served clients in Canada, the US, the UK, Sweden and Australia, Adrian mixes his strategic advisory experience and deep knowledge of feasibility and due diligence studies, business case, financial and economic modelling, policy and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining CPCS, he worked with WSP and HDR. Adrian holds a Master of Science in Economics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a Bachelor of Science and Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Visions for Ending the Transit Funding Emergency
Monika Wyrzykowska
Toronto Regional Board of Trade
Monika Wyrzykowska is the Director of Transportation and Infrastructure Policy at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, where she leads cross-sectoral initiatives to improve regional mobility and infrastructure delivery in support of business needs, economic competitiveness, and productivity. She works closely with public- and private-sector leaders to identify actionable solutions, shape policy recommendations, and advocate for policies and investments that strengthen the economic fabric of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Monika brings over a decade of experience in government relations, policy development, and stakeholder engagement. Prior to joining the Board, she held roles at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, including Acting Director of Metrolinx & Agencies Oversight. In that capacity, she led corporate governance and strategic oversight for Ontario’s major transit agencies—Metrolinx, Ontario Northland, and the Owen Sound Transportation Company—and helped establish the Metrolinx Accountability and Relations Office, a dedicated unit focused on agency oversight and intergovernmental coordination. Monika holds a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), both from the University of Toronto.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Visions for Ending the Transit Funding Emergency
Aidan Grove-White
StrategyCorp
Aidan is a Vice President at StrategyCorp and leads several teams in our Land and Infrastructure Development and Municipal Services practices. He works with a team of talented professionals with planning, development, political, and policy backgrounds on a wide array of projects and initiatives. Aidan has a proven track-record of succeeding on complex and ambitious files in the various roles he’s held in the public service, not-for-profit sector, and now in the private sector. Serving clients from across the spectrum, including municipalities, developers, not-for-profit organizations, and neighbourhood groups, he prides himself on his ability to find creative solutions and forge innovative partnerships. Before joining StrategyCorp in 2019, Aidan was a manager in the Ontario Public Service, serving in policy roles at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for over four years. Prior to that, he was the water programs manager and a planning advisor for Environmental Defence. Aidan has also held a variety of policy positions in the Ontario and British Columbia governments including drinking water protection, services for victims of crime, economic and social integration of newcomers, and employment for persons with disabilities.
Fraser Macdonald
StrategyCorp
Fraser is a public affairs expert, lawyer, and long-time political strategist with extensive experience helping lead municipal, provincial, and federal election campaigns. His legal career saw him specialize in banking and finance at several large international law firms in Toronto, Australia and London, UK. Outside his legal experience, Fraser has served clients from across Canada as a senior government relations advisor. In these roles, Fraser has provided counsel to clients in the infrastructure and development, healthcare, environment, energy, and financial service sectors. Fraser has been involved in politics for over 20 years, including managing several campaigns at the provincial and federal levels. In 2010, he acted as Deputy Communications Director on Rob Ford’s winning mayoral campaign in Toronto. Most recently, he served as Policy Director on Jean Charest’s Conservative Party leadership campaign. Fraser has also been a contributor on political and public policy issues on CP24, CBC, the Toronto Sun, The Line, and other publications. Fraser holds a B.A. (Hons) in History from Queen’s University and a Juris Doctor (with distinction) from Bond University.
PANEL DISCUSSION: Managing Transit Planning, Capital and Operations Complexity