By Staff
March 6th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
Ontario is boosting support for the City of Burlington providing them with reliable, long-term funding to improve and expand local transit and offer more travel options for commuters and families.
The funds are provided by the province – it is up to the city to actually spend the money on transit – in the past city council has opted to spend the grant from the province on road repairs.
John Street terminal – will be designated as a mobility hub – what kind of a difference that is going to make is not all that clear.
Starting in 2019, Ontario will increase funding for Burlington and other municipal transit systems across the province through an enhancement to the existing gas tax program, doubling the municipal share from two cents per litre to four cents by 2021. There will be no increase in the tax that people in Ontario pay on gasoline as a result of the enhancement to the program.
Gas price are all over the map – but seldom below $1 a litre.
Burlington which has received an average of about $2 million per year in gas tax funding, could see its funding increased to an estimated $2.5 million in 2019-20, $3 million in 2020-21 and to $4.1 million in 2021-22.
The City of Burlington is able to use gas tax funding to make major infrastructure upgrades, buy additional transit vehicles, add more routes, extend hours of service, implement fare strategies and improve accessibility.
Eleanor McMahon, MPP for Burlington sees this as “… great news for the City of Burlington. Increased gas tax funding will help tailor services to suit our community needs. Providing more options for commuters and families in Burlington will keep our region moving and will make transit a more convenient and attractive form of transportation.”
A selfie of the Mayor on the day he rode the bus to work. The office of the Mayor provided the picture.
The Mayor “… welcomes increased Provincial investments into our transit system and the continuation of sustainable, long-term funding. The increase will coincide with the work we are currently undertaking to develop a new transit strategy, which will continue to make public transit another viable travel option for our residents.”
Ontario made gas tax program funding permanent in 2013 to provide a stable source for municipal transit investments. One bus takes up to 40 vehicles off the road, and keeps 25 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere each year.
The problem Burlington faces is that its citizens don’t want to get out of their cars.
It would be nice to see a portion of this additional funding reserved so that the most vulnerable members of our community (e.g. the disabled; those on fixed incomes; etc.) could ride public transit free during the day.
You are absolutely correct on this!
The fantastic MariAnneMeedWard asked for free rides for seniors during the day and off peak. This would have NO added cost to the transit system, as the buses are running anyways. Our fine members of City council voted it down.
Awesome – Provincial MPs will be bombarding us with Sunny tweets until June 2018 as that’s just how long they have to hang on for. Might as well start handing out the goodies asap. The Mayor will provide inches and inches of print trumpeting this victory for his shiny new ” Official Transit Plan” Now, how about some more money for the HDSB budget so that they can keep all our high schools open. Or doesn’t it work that way?
Perhaps the reason Burlington residents chose not to give up their cars is because the public transit is so poor. My question once again regarding public transit, do we have to wait until 2021 to perhaps get better public transit?
Your article suggested that it will not necessarily go to getting more buses and drivers on the road.