Canada Must Help Fix the Broken Public Transit Funding Model

Public transit is at the nexus of solving Canada’s most pressing challenges.

It is the most powerful method of tackling traffic congestion. It is the lifeblood of economic growth in our biggest cities. It is a solution to the rising cost of living. It helps us reduce carbon emissions.

But public transit systems across the country are in a financial crisis. If this historic challenge isn’t overcome, we risk a future that is costlier, more polluting, and where gridlock holds people and businesses back from their full potential.

Canada’s cities are rapidly growing, and they need public transit to grow with them. To confront the housing crisis, Canada needs more housing supply, in particular near convenient and frequent public transit. But it makes no sense to force transit systems to cut service while trying to encourage transit-oriented development.

We must stop public transit service cuts in their tracks if we are to avert the threat of a vicious downward spiral, which only ends up hurting the most vulnerable people in our society.

Here’s the problem: Canada’s municipalities are responsible for maintaining and delivering most of the infrastructure and services that support Canadians in their daily lives. But our municipalities are struggling to fund these services under a 19th-century revenue framework that was never designed for the realities of the 21st century. As Canadian cities have grown at a record rate, this need for predictable, adequate funding for transit and other critical local services has only grown more urgent. In particular, we see a public transit funding model that is broken and holding back our country and communities.

We need to redesign this outdated model so that Canadians can see that public dollars for transit are being most efficiently and effectively used, and so Canada’s transit agencies have access to the operating and capital revenues they require to maintain and expand everyday transit service to respond to growing demands and today’s challenges.

We believe that all orders of government have a role to play in supporting the growth of safe, reliable, accessible and affordable public transit service in communities across the country. That is why we are calling on:

1. The federal government to play a leadership role and convene provinces and municipalities to collaboratively develop a new cost-shared public transit funding model. This new model must ensure that federal and provincial transit funding programs deliver sufficient, sustainable revenue that meets both capital and operating needs and that these programs grow with the economy, population and ridership.

2. The federal government supports long-term transportation planning that aligns with and delivers on the economic, social and environmental objectives of all orders of government by enshrining the Canada Public Transit Fund in legislation, similar to the Canadian Community Building Fund, to ensure its long-term predictability.

It is time to put aside the blame game and find real solutions collaboratively.

We, the undersigned,

Tim Gray, Executive Director, Environmental Defence Canada
Marc-André Viau, Director, Government Relations, Équiterre
The City of Calgary
The City of Edmonton
The City of Brampton
TransLink Mayors’ Council Chair Brad West, Vice Chair Malcolm Brodie and Mayor Linda Buchanan
John DiNino, President, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Canada
Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director, Climate Action Network- Réseau action climat Canada (CanRAC)
Maggie Harvey, Directrice générale, Trajectoire Québec
Christian Savard, directeur général de Vivre en Ville / General manager
Samuel Pagé-Plouffe, coordonnateur de l'Alliance TRANSIT / Coordinator
Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Executive Director, TTCriders
Gideon Forman, Climate Change and Transportation Policy Analyst, David Suzuki Foundation
Denis Agar, Executive Director, Movement (Metro Vancouver Transit Riders)
Terry Johnson, President, Transport Action Canada
Robert Clipperton, Bus Riders of Saskatoon
Michael Druker, Board Chair, Tri-Cities Transport Action Group
Kaitlyn Cernanec, Founder, Barrie Riders
Daniel Witte, Chair, Edmonton Transit Riders
Martin Vaillancourt, directeur général du Regroupement national des conseils régionaux de l'environnement du Québec