Every day, Canadians rely on public transit—to get to work or school, see a doctor, or shop for groceries. And though there are fewer passengers due to Covid, more than two million people rely on transit every day. Let’s keep transit moving so workers, students, seniors, and people living with disabilities can get where they need to go. And let’s keep building transit to make our cities less congested and climate goals easier to meet.
The top priority for the Canadian Urban Transit Association is ongoing operating support for public transit.
In the United States, the federal government has extended support to keep transit moving until the end of 2024. Canadian systems need ongoing support as well to avoid service reductions that will hit people most who depend on transit to access work or school—and will make our cities more congested and climate goals harder to reach.
In addition, CUTA asks parties to:
Build more public transit through a Permanent Transit Fund
Help transit systems green their fleets with more zero-emission buses
Across Canada, governments of all parties have helped keep transit moving and expand systems. CUTA thanks them for their support and asks every party in this election to keep transit moving, too.
CUTA has given the parties mixed grades for their public transit policies. We reached our rankings by weighting various policy areas, and using the parties’ platforms, fiscal plans (where applicable), and responses to a CUTA questionnaire.
View the report card hereTo learn more about each party’s priorities for public transit, we sent them a questionnaire
View the responses here
A few months after the pandemic began, the federal government and provinces delivered $4.6 billion in supports to public transit. But these funds are expiring. To keep transit moving for the people who rely on it every day, the federal government should work with provinces and territories to continue to support public transit until ridership returns.
Earlier this year, the federal government announced a new Permanent Transit Fund of $3 billion a year would begin in 2026. This is a potentially transformative step forward in building public transit, by providing predictable funds for municipalities and transit systems to link more neighbourhoods and give more people a convenient alternative to driving.
Public transit has always reduced greenhouse emissions. By using zero-emission buses powered by electricity or hydrogen, it can play an even larger role in helping Canada meet its climate targets. But buses that emit less cost more. Sometimes, up to double the price of conventional vehicles. They also require significant, costly changes to depots to allow for recharging.