Toronto Port Authority - Governance

Governance

The Toronto Port Authority is a public corporation. As such, it has a board of directors, appointed under regulations of the Canada Marine Act and the Letters patent of the TPA. As originally set up, the Board was seven members, and was made up of one member appointed by the Government of Canada, one by the City, one by the Province of Ontario, and four by the federal government in consultation with the classes of users mentioned in the letters patent. The federal government changed the Letters Patent of the TPA in 2008 to modify this to nine members. The federal government transport minister now nominates seven of the nine members, one as the federal government representative and six "in consultation with the users selected by the Minister, or the classes of users mentioned in Schedule D of these Letters Patent."

The current structure replaces the older Toronto Harbour Commission that had a five-member board including three City of Toronto councillors. Under the Letters Patent, no City of Toronto Councillor, Ontario Member of Parliament or Canadian Member of Parliament can be a director and no employee of the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, or Government of Canada (or related agencies) can be a director. The 'users directors' are to be nominated by the businesses operating in the port, the airport, commercial users or recreational businesses. Like all port authorities created from harbour commissions, the aim was to update port operations so that it worked more like a business than a government agency.

This model of organization has been criticized for excluding persons or organizations that utilize the services in a non-commercial manner. The TPA has had to defend the choice and composition of the board of directors. Lisa Raitt, former TPA CEO has stated: "It's a community-based board of directors".

In 2008, Board members were paid between $13,000 and $18,000 each for their services.