MTA big fled for Canada
Spent months out of town amid 2nd wave of COVID
The MTA’s No. 2 official — required by his job description to lead the delivery of “high quality transportation services” — retreated to Canada in the last months of 2020 as New York was slammed with a second wave of COVID-19 cases, say sources with knowledge of his whereabouts.
Mario Peloquin — who was hired as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief operating officer in November 2019 and is second in commend to agency Chairman Patrick Foye — spent most of September, October, November and December with his family north of the border, agency sources said.
Peloquin was out of town for major transit interruptions, including December’s blizzard that gnarled transit service across the region, the sources said.
Peloquin’s job description also requires him to represent the MTA at “local, state and federal government meetings and hearings, industry events and public meetings.”
But he was either out of town or sidelined when transit officials participated in an Aug. 25 hearing with the state Legislature on the MTA’s pandemic response.
As other MTA officials successfully lobbied for $4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funding throughout the fall, Peloquin mostly found himself in Ontario, closer to the Canadian capital of Ottawa than Washington, D.C.
Transit officials said Peloquin, who is paid $325,000 per year, returned to Canada to spend time with his family, and his visits were extended due to required quarantine periods. The border is closed for nonessential travel, but Peloquin’s job allows him to cross.
“Since the pandemic hit in March, Mario has spent the bulk of his time in New York and at the office, serving as a key player in our response, including leading the effort for our plans to prepare for and combat the second wave,” said Foye. “To suggest anything otherwise is completely false.”
MTA officials were not able to provide the exact number of days Peloquin was in New York from September through December.
Peloquin came to the MTA from the private sector. He was previously an executive at SNC-Lavalin, a Montreal-based engineering firm with offices around the world.
MTA officials have in some cases encouraged employees to work from home when possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — but Peloquin’s penchant for remote work during the fall would have kept him from riding the very transit systems he oversees.
His COO job was created through a 2019 state-mandated reorganization of the agency’s bureaucracy — and the new position was part of the reason why former NYC Transit President Andy Byford resigned from the MTA in January 2020.
Byford — who now runs Transport for London — made a point of regularly riding the city’s subways and buses and speaking with straphangers when he lived in New York.
Transit advocates said any hiccups at the MTA caused by Peloquin’s stays in Canada should be pinned on Gov. Cuomo, who controls the agency.
“There have been many dedicated public servants who have come to the fore for riders and transit workers,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “But it’s up to the governor to make sure the system is fully staffed, and the service is reliable, affordable and accessible.”