March 11, 2024
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Via email: [email protected]
The Honourable Sean Fraser
Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Via email: [email protected]
Dear Minister Fraser and Minister Freeland,
Open letter re: Accelerating funding for public transit in Metro Vancouver
I write you today to bring to your attention calls for action to accelerate federal investment in expanding transit service and enhancing public transportation as a basic and essential service. This is a key item that my constituents are watching for in the upcoming 2024 federal budget, and I have heard from hundreds of Vancouver East residents in the last few weeks who are calling on the federal government for immediate funding investments.
While your government announced the creation of the $3 billion a year Permanent Transit Fund in 2021, outrageously, that money doesn’t start flowing until 2026, meaning it could be even longer before municipalities can get new buses on the road, electrify fleets and build infrastructure – and increases in labour and material costs since 2021 mean that planned funding won’t go nearly as far as it would have three years ago.
Last year I wrote the previous Minister of Infrastructure & Communities calling on the government to move disbursement of the fund up to the 2023-24 federal budget. Dismayingly, that call was not met.
The federal government needs to partner with municipalities in making sure that public transportation meets people’s needs. The fact is, there still remains an urgent need for operational funding for public transit to ensure viable service levels in addition to the urgent need for stable, permanent funding to rapidly expand transit infrastructure.
Translink, my community’s regional transportation authority, now operates the fourth-busiest transit system in Canada or the US. Post-lockdown ridership has recovered to the point that ridership growth now surpasses all other major transit systems in Canada and the United States. According to Translink, “In some parts of the region, ridership is 20% higher than it was in 2019, and ridership on some busy routes have more than doubled over the same period.” Yet, there remains a shortfall in funds needed to bring the system to the capacity that’s needed.
The Translink Mayor’s Council noted in their 2024 pre-budget submission, “it is the inevitable result of the transit funding model that prevailed in North America prior to the pandemic. This model relied on highly regressive user fees set at much higher rates than any other core public service. In addition, transit’s other primary funding tool, the property tax, is also regressive and does not grow at the same rate as the growing needs on transit such as population, the economy or senior government expectations around housing affordability, climate change or reconciliation. While this model worked, although barely, prior to the pandemic, inflation, changes in ridership patterns, accelerated population growth rates as a result of higher federal immigration targets, and new transit-oriented development requirements have combined to sever the relationship between transit revenue sources and the needs and expectations to deliver expanded services.” Municipalities in
Metro Vancouver are working cooperatively to expand public transit across Metro Vancouver and improve infrastructure, aiming to meet the ridership, emissions reduction and service expansion goals laid out in Translink’s Access for Everyone plan. The BC provincial government is partnering to provide post-pandemic funding, which will also to aid in meeting BC’s target of reducing light-vehicle kilometres-travelled by 25% by 2030.
For these initiatives to succeed, your partnership and support through long-term, stable, and adequate funding is required.
Surely, in the midst of an affordability crisis, it is sensible to invest in the robust improvement and expansion of public transportation. It will support population growth. It will support people who need reliable, affordable transportation so that they can continue to work, live, go to school, and play in their neighbourhoods without being forced into difficult circumstances due to lack of transportation access. It will accelerate the greenhouse gas emissions reductions we so desperately need in climate emergency.
Therefore, I urge as strongly as possible that you move disbursement of the Permanent Transit Fund up to the 2024 budget. I also encourage you to look at increasing the Fund to ensure that it supports municipalities in meeting their infrastructure needs.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of this important call for action from Vancouver East constituents, and I will look forward to your reply so I can keep the community informed.
Sincerely,
Jenny Kwan
Member of Parliament for Vancouver East
Cc: Translink Mayors’ Council
Via email: [email protected]
