Federal public transit plan more stop than go: Hume

Joe Oliver’s poorly supported transit fund shows the Tories don’t take transit seriously.

Thestar.com
April 23, 2015
By Christopher Hume

Except for the fact it’s not funny, Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s Public Transit Fund is a joke. Either that or an insult.
Even as he acknowledged that the federal government has a responsibility to help solve urban Canada’s growing mobility woes, he refused to accept it.

His pledge - $250 million starting in 2017, $500 million in 2018 and $1 billion annually after 2019 - can’t be taken seriously. That $1 billion, which will become available in four years, must be shared by all cities in Canada.

At a time when a single kilometere of subway costs upwards of $300 million, that won’t get us far.

It is a sign of the times that even this paltry gesture caused Toronto Mayor John Tory to sing Oliver’s praises.

“I believe this is a major step forward for Canada and for Toronto,” His Worship effused. “Finally, and for the first time in history, Canada has a permanent national fund for transit that will soon add up to $1 billion annually for transit projects.”

Imagine that. In 2015, Ottawa wakes up to one of the country’s most intractable issues, but even then isn’t prepared to make a meaningful commitment.

Perhaps Tory’s right. Perhaps Oliver’s is a government so completely ignorant of city life in 21st-century Canada that we should be thankful even for such a small glimmer of awareness. There must be awareness before there can be action, but as always, that will take time.

More disturbing still, perhaps Oliver is right and neither he nor his increasingly brutish boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will be held to account for their indifference. It’s unlikely the base feels much love for public transit. It’s a bit too, well, socialist. Besides, it’s for others, people unlike us, people too poor to drive.

As Saint Margaret of Thatcher is said to have harrumphed, “Any man who rides a bus to work after the age of 30 can count himself a failure in life.”

And let’s not forget that other great apostle of contemporary conservatism, George Bush Junior. Asked what he would do for public transit, Baby Bush replied, “I will improve the economy so you can find good enough work to be able to afford a car.” Joe Oliver couldn’t have put it better.

Even in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, there are many who believe the real job of public transit is to keep the streets clear for drivers. That’s why there’s so much support for subways. Out of sight, out of mind.

Thank goodness, then, for Premier Kathleen Wynne, who not only gets it but is willing to put her money where her mouth is. Her budget, delivered Thursday, devotes $50 billion to transit over the next decade. Yet even she can’t escape the temptation to treat transit as a reward for well behaved voters.

Transit has always been political, of course, but what we're seeing now is what happens when transit becomes a way for politicians to show their love rather than address a need. Other parts of the infrastructure - sewers, roads, power - are approached more democratically. We don’t question whether we “deserve” electricity; we need it, depend on it.

So, while Wynne’s decision to fund fully the $1.6-billion Hurontario LRT will thrill Mississaugans, no one would argue it represents the best use of scarce public dollars. The King (504) streetcar alone carries almost double the projected ridership of the 23-kilometre line. The figures on the Scarborough line are even lower.

The Liberals will have to hope all those riders vote; for the rest of us, it’s back to the end of the line.