BFAST seeks transit answers from Burlington municipal candidates

(Following is the text of a BFAST news release.)

Burlington’s pro-transit lobby wants to hear from the city’s Mayoral and City Council candidates about how they would improve bus service.

Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit (BFAST) has emailed a seven-question survey on transit to every candidate for Mayor and Council who has supplied their email address for publication on the city’s election website.

“There are a lot of pressing issues in this election, and one of the most important is transit,” said BFAST Chair Doug Brown. “With nearly four milion rides last year, Burlington Transit is part of the city’s essential infrastructure.”

“Surveys have consistently shown that Burlingtonians consider transit a top priority,” Brown said. “Riders need to know how their candidates will support them.”

The surveys were sent by email earlier this month. Results are coming in and will be published shortly on BFAST’s website, bfast.ca.

The survey’s seven questions cover general subjects such as support for transit expansion to specific issues like specialized and on-demand transit.

This is the third time BFAST has surveyed municipal candidates on transit, reaching municipal hopefuls in every election since 2018. A large majority of candidates has traditionally responded to the survey.

Survey questions

Question 1:

What role can transit play in reducing traffic congestion and mitigating increasing expenditures on road maintenance?

Question 2:

In your opinion, what can be done to improve specialized transit for disabled riders and would you be in favour of raising the budget for this increasingly important service?

Question 3:

Burlington’s and Halton’s Official Plans call for transit’s share of all trips to rise to 20% (from the current figure of about 4%) by 2031. Do you support this objective?

Question 4:

With record ridership and increasing demand, are you in favour of supporting continued expansion of Burlington’s transit system?

Question 5:

Have you ever used Burlington Transit? Would you be willing to give it a try?

Question 6:

The Ontario Legislature recently passed Bill 98, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026, which gives the provincial Minister of Transportation the power to override municipal transit authorities and set routes and fares for municipal transit systems. We at BFAST have the following concerns about this legislation:

1. It could disrupt current arrangements between transit systems in Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton that provide connections between these cities.
2. The Minister could divert Burlington Transit resources — for example, to provide service along the planned bus rapid transit corridor on Highway 5 (Dundas St.), which was supposed to have been undertaken by GO Transit. This would, in effect, download more fiscal responsibility from the province to local governments.
3. Certain initiatives by Burlington Transit, such as free fares for seniors and students, could be eliminated.

Please comment on this legislation and what measures you would undertake or support to ensure transit service levels in Burlington would not be degraded.

Question 7:

Over the past months, a plan has been promoted wherein a private company would provide on-demand transit service to potentially replace certain routes operated by Burlington Transit. Among BFAST’s concerns with this plan are:

1. Over-reliance on one private company to provide a service that could not be easily replaced if the provider were to fail.
2. Cost escalation and more traffic on our roads as mini-buses replaced current vehicles and more drivers were needed to move the same number of passengers.
3. Diversion of already-constrained Burlington Transit budget to a private, for-profit company, resulting in lower levels of service.

We would appreciate your comments on on-demand transit in general and the idea of diverting public budgets to private corporations.

End of survey. Thank you for your participation!