National Transit Strategy: Olivia Outlines Key Components in Committee
December 5, 2011
OTTAWA – In working towards a National Public Transit Strategy and getting Canadians the 21st-century transportation system they deserve, Olivia Chow has made key recommendations to the House Committee on Transport on what the policy framework should entail. Her input is part of the committee’s study on the necessity and shape of a National Transit Strategy.
Olivia’s suggestions are centered around five major points:
- Accountability: Directing federal help to where it is most effective in a transparent manner
- Eligibility: Setting up investment principles for receiving federal support
- Federal Leadership: Ensuring a clear, focused new federal role in improving Canada’s public transit
- Long-Term Funding: Establishing dedicated, secured funding streams for current and future transit needs
- Innovation: Investing in research and development for new, sustainable transit technologies
Here the details:
Accountability
The federal government is already supporting public transit throughout the country with significant annual investments. In order to ensure that the funds are well allocated and that the Return on Investment is maximized, all transit-related spending has to be subjected to clear accountability standards, safeguarding the transparent and responsible use of federal money. We recommend the following parameters for assessing the attractiveness and effectiveness of every transit investment:
- Growth in access to and use of public transit
- Improvement of productivity through reduction in commute times and congestion
- Economic impact through the number of jobs created and other GDP benefits
- Decrease greenhouse gas emissions and improvement of air quality
- High level of sourcing from Canadian service providers and manufacturers
- Increase in user-friendliness through seamless integration with existing transit infrastructure
- Contribution to keeping Canada’s transit assets in a state of good repair
Principles for Federal Support
In order for provinces, territories, municipalities, Aboriginal communities and transit operators to receive federal financial support, the following procedural principles should be respected:
- Minimize costs by using competitive tendering for procurement and outsourced services
- Maximize desirable effect on density of employment and population through integrated transit and land-use planning
- Utilize federal funding in an incremental way, i.e. no displacement of provincial and municipal resources
- Ensure effectiveness of investment by embedding initiative in larger long-term planning
New Federal Leadership
In order to ensure that federal funds are allocated in the best possible manner under a long-term investment plan, the federal government has to engage in a dialogue with the other orders of government to assess funding needs, priorities and risks. Those consultations are already taking place in related infrastructure investment areas. We recommend a similar approach through the following suggestions:
- Establish an annual federal-provincial-territorial conference with all ministers responsible for public transit as well as representatives from municipalities and Aboriginal communities to discuss mobility issues and plans and assess how the federal government can best support their initiatives; this forum will facilitate the exchange of best practices.
- Create a federal investment plan for public transit across the country, updated and presented to the House of Commons annually, in part based on results from annual tri-partite conference
- Charge the Policy Group within Infrastructure Canada to develop a national public transit policy framework, and to act as the coordinating unit responsible for working with other federal departments
- Yearly reports to both House of Commons by the federal minister of transportation on the long-term investment plan, the consultations with the other levels of government and the progress made within the national policy framework for public transit
- Institute clear incentives to ensure that provinces and municipalities direct federal investment to public transit consistent with policy objectives
- Explore how to foster information sharing between levels of government and transit operators in addition to tri-partite conferences
Funding Current and Future Transit Needs
To guarantee predictable and stable long-term funding for Canada’s transit needs and to increase the use of public transit, a number of steps are essential:
- Establish a long-term funding stream that is dedicated for public transit and distributed to provinces and territories
- Additionally, create a committed federal infrastructure fund in the form of a national public transit fund; long-term in nature, this fund has to be equipped with a stable, predictable amount of capital on an annual basis; the fund can be used for upgrade/expansion as well as state-of-good-repair investments
- Set up a clear funding mechanism that enables provinces and municipalities to apply for and receive federal funds in a predictable and timely manner
- Give tax-exempt status to employer-provided transit benefits
- Consider earmarking a portion of federal funding for rural transit needs
Funding Research and Development
In order to make transportation in Canada more sustainable and to enable Canadian companies in pioneering greener transit technologies, we recommend the following actions:
- Establish a dedicated annual fund directed at research and development for sustainable innovation in public transit, e.g. through grants and contributions to those efforts
- Integrate funds for research and development with existing federal programs with the goal of making funding more accessible and transparent for transit-related institutions
- Enable financial support for transit-related R&D in the form of direct aid (grants, contributions, loans) as well as tax benefits (tax credits, tax breaks) for research and development institutions
