Download Moving Communities Forward Investing In Public Transit

MOVING COMMUNITIES FORWARD,
INVESTING IN PUBLIC TRANSIT
Public transit is a critical engine of the Canadian economy. Over the last several decades, Canadian cities have
been growing at a rapid rate, and roughly seven out of ten
people now live in one of Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas. Half of Canada’s GDP is generated in the six
largest metropolitan areas alone, and the populations of
our cities will only continue to grow in the coming
decades.
challenge is ensuring that our municipalities have the money they
need to keep public transit in
good repair, and to build new
transit infrastructure to accommodate growing populations and the
demands of the future.
While the urbanization of Canada has created many
challenges, traffic congestion and gridlock is one of the
most visible, resulting in long commute times and air
pollution, while costing our economy billions of dollars annually.
As Liberal Party of Canada Leader Justin Trudeau
told the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in June,
2015:
A LIBERAL GOVERNMENT
Municipalities deliver more than 60
percent of all services to citizens –
but only collect between 8 and 12
cents out of every tax dollar. On
infrastructure, even though the
federal government has about half of
the fiscal capacity of all orders of
government, it only makes 12 per
cent of all infrastructure investments.
The C.D. Howe Institute has
WILL QUADRUPLE
estimated that traffic congestion
FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN
costs Metro Vancouver between
$500 million and $1.2 billion per
PUBLIC TRANSIT OVER
year. In the Greater Toronto and
THE NEXT DECADE BY
Hamilton Area, it estimates the
INVESTING ALMOST $20
costs could be as high as $11
BILLION MORE.
billion per year. This loss of
economic activity translates
directly into lower wages for
To address this fact, a Liberal
Canadian workers and lower standards of living for famigovernment will quadruple federal investment in public
lies. This is happening right across the country.
transit over the next decade by investing almost $20
billion more. Our funding will be flexible to municipalities’ priorities and requirements, in order to maximize
The Liberal Party understands that in order to grow the
the number of public transit projects that are built in
economy and middle class incomes, we will need to
address this challenge together. The key to meeting this
Canada. Federal funding will no longer be a roadblock to
MOVING COMMUNITIES FORWARD, INVESTING IN PUBLIC TRANSIT
action. This funding commitment is on top of all existing
public transit commitments already made by the federal
government.
In order to achieve this, a Liberal government will develop bilateral agreements with the provinces and territories, similar to those created for the successful gas tax
transfer to cities and communities. For our communities
to succeed, funding for infrastructure needs to be
substantive, predictable, and sustained. We will not only
significantly increase the scale of federal transit investment; our plan will provide provinces, territories, and
municipalities with an unprecedented level of long-term
predictability in funding as well. This will be done in full
respect of provincial jurisdiction.
This historic, new influx of federal money into public
transportation projects – along with the money committed directly to public transit in Budget 2015 – will allow
the existing New Building Canada Fund to focus more on
other parts of Canada’s vital transportation system, such
as roads and bridges.
Photo, page 1 - Bus on Johnson Street Bridge, Victoria, BC, Credit: Flickr user
ogier300 via CC BY 2.0. Photo, page 2 - Subway emerging from tunnel, Toronto, ON,
Credit: Flickr user garyjwood via CC BY-SA 2.0.
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