Ottawa vows $15B in transit funds
Provincial investment will have ‘tremendous impact’ on city, Tory says
The federal government plans to spend close to $15 billion on public transit over the next eight years, an investment Mayor John Tory said could have “a tremendous impact” on Toronto’s network.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday his government will allocate $14.9 billion to public transit starting in 2021. The Liberals said the funding can be used for major expansion projects, zeroemissions vehicles, infrastructure for active modes like walking and cycling, and transportation improvements in rural and Indigenous communities.
“When we invest in public transit infrastructure, we are supporting good middle-class jobs, creating better commutes, fighting climate change, and helping make life easier and more affordable for Canadians,” Trudeau said in a statement.
Just under $6 billion would be spent in the first five years of the program. The majority of the investment would flow through a dedicated fund that would start in 2026 and provide communities across the country with $3 billion a year.
The creation of the permanent fund was welcome news for municipalities and transit groups that have long argued relying on one-off funding announcements has made it difficult to make long-term plans.
Marco D’Angelo, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, said the permanent funding stream would “solve many of the hurdles and delays that currently plague transit being built.”
Exactly what the funding will mean for Toronto wasn’t immediately clear. Through previous programs, Ottawa had already allocated at least $4.9 billion for major transit infrastructure projects. But the TTC has no shortage of needs.
The agency says $23.2 billion of capital work required to keep the system in a state of good repair and meet demand over the next 15 years is unfunded, as are priority projects like the Eglinton East and East Waterfront
LRTs. The TTC is urgently seeking commitments from other levels of government to buy new streetcars, buses, and subways.
In a statement, Tory said he was confident Toronto “will receive its fair share of funding” and “it will make a significant positive contribution to our economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19.” He said the money would go toward “transit expansion, transit vehicles and other system upgrades, jobs, and a greener city.”
Natasha Tremblay, a spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, said that while Premier
Doug Ford’s government “welcomes today’s announcement,” it is waiting on details about “how this will help Ontario’s municipalities.”
The Ontario PC’s have been calling on their federal counterparts to commit to providing up to 40 per cent of the cost of its $28.5-billion Toronto-area expansion program, which includes the Ontario Line and Scarborough subway extension. On Tuesday, the province also said it would be open to reviving a version of the Hamilton LRT it cancelled a year ago.
In a statement, Chantalle Aubertin, spokesperson for Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna, suggested Ottawa needs the provincial government to provide more evidence to support its funding requests.
“We look forward to receiving more information and business cases for projects that are shovel ready,” she said. According to Aubertin, the feds will work with other levels of government in the coming months to determine how the funding will be allocated.