Federal budget should include $1 billion for public transit: Editorial
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is right to urge that the upcoming federal budget include $1 billion to be spent on public transit.

TheStar.com
April 5, 2015

With gridlock worsening, not just in the Toronto area but in cities across this country, Canadians can’t afford to wait much longer for a meaningful federal response. That’s why municipal leaders are entirely right to press Ottawa to allocate at least $1 billion a year to improve public transit, starting with the federal budget now scheduled for April 21.

“Today, the average Canadian commuter spends the equivalent of 32 working days a year travelling to and from work,” according to a recent budget submission to Finance Minister Joe Oliver by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
 
The human cost of that lost time is tallied in missed family life, inadequate sleep, mounting aggravation and emotional stress. Gridlock carries a heavy dollar loss, too, with the C.D. Howe Institute estimating that traffic congestion costs the Toronto region alone up to $11 billion a year in lost productivity.

As if that weren’t bad enough, it’s all bound to get worse as urban populations grow, further straining the country’s already-inadequate transportation infrastructure.
 
Municipalities, which obtain their revenue mainly from property tax, simply can’t fund all the public transit Canada so desperately needs. They’re ready to do their share but a solid commitment is needed from Ottawa to get more trains, buses, subways and streetcars moving to ease gridlock.
 
“Mayors from across the country are united and ready to partner with the federal government on cutting commute times,” Toronto Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard)said when the FCM put forward its demand.

The FCM, billing itself as “the national voice of municipal government,” wants new federal investment of at least $1 billion a year dedicated to city transit projects. That would be matched by municipal and provincial governments for a total program value of $3 billion.

Rather than a “project-by-project band-aid approach to infrastructure investment,” this spending would be put on a reliable long-term track, in five-year planning cycles. And funding would be allocated according to transit ridership instead of by population, meaning that cities operating substantial transit systems, such as Toronto, would get a bigger share of the money.
 
That’s fair. Commuters in and around large urban areas have the greatest need.

As if to underscore their plight, Amsterdam-based GPS technology giant TomTom released its annual traffic index this past week and rated Vancouver as the third most congested place in North America, after Mexico City and Los Angeles. Its bridges serve as traffic-choking bottlenecks.

Close behind was Toronto, followed by Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton. TomTom measures congestion by analyzing GPS data and comparing time stuck in traffic during rush hour with “free flow” conditions. For the record, commuters in Istanbul suffer more than any others.
 
It’s no wonder that Vancouver politicians and urban planners, worried about crippling gridlock, are pushing for a $7.5-billion transit plan. Toronto has severe needs, too. Tory has proposed construction of an $8-billion “surface subway” system called SmartTrack. An injection of federal funding is sorely needed to get that fully underway.
 
It’s no secret that some of Toronto’s major subway projects have been badly fumbled. Just last week, city council voted to add $150 million to the capital budget of the trouble-plagued Spadina subway expansion. More significantly, council approved a plan to “reset” that effort by taking management of the project away from the Toronto Transit Commission and putting it in the hands of an expert private-sector company.

It’s fair to say lessons have been learned. There’s a very real determination to avoid past mistakes. And federal budget-makers should rest assured that an investment in Toronto public transit won’t be wasted.
 
According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association, every dollar devoted to building public transit results in $3 worth of economic growth. Even beyond that, a federal strategy delivering long-term transit funding could result in better family life, less stress and improved health for millions of harried commuters. Urban voters would be grateful.