Jan. 10, 2023
At the Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk & Accountability Committee on Jan. 9, 2023, Staff Report CS-04-23 stated:
Public transit plays a critical role in local climate mitigation by providing residents with the opportunity to utilize public transit to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles for single use trips. This funding ensures that transit remains a viable and stable option and promotes the goals identified in the City’s Climate Change Action Plan.
To address the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 in 2022, the federal and provincial government are each providing $252.5 million for a total of $505 million of funding for municipal transit systems in Ontario. This funding is referred to as Phase 4 of the SRA Municipal Transit stream program or SRA4. On December 7, 2022, the Minister of Transportation wrote to Mayor Meed Ward to inform her that the City of Burlington is eligible to receive up to $1,567,656 to help address our COVID-19 municipal transit pressures incurred from February 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. Prior to the December announcement the City of Burlington has received $5,862,931 in SRA – Municipal Transit Stream funding for Burlington Transit.
A further report CS-03-23 stated:
The Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) is a $30 billion, 10-yearinfrastructure cost-shared program between federal (40 per cent contribution), provincial (33.33 per cent contribution) and municipal governments (26.67 per contribution). It was introduced in 2019 and had four streams: rural and northern, public transit, green and community, culture and recreation. The program was designed to generate long-term economic growth, build inclusive, sustainable and resilient communities and support low-carbon communities.
The transit stream of the ICIP program was allocation based. Funding was allocated to transit systems based on their share of total transit ridership in Ontario, as per the 2015 Canadian Urban Transit Association Fact Book. The total funding allocation for the City of Burlington was $45 million with $33.2 million funded from the senior levels of government and $12 million funded by the City.
In November 2022, the City submitted applications for the following projects:
- Conventional Vehicle Replacement – Replacement of two diesel fuelled vehicles with two hybrid-electric low emission vehicles.
- Conventional Vehicle Expansion – Purchase of one diesel and eight low emission conventional buses (2024-2027).
- Specialized Vehicle Expansion – Purchase of four additional vehicles (2023-2026).
- Enhanced Service Delivery – Installation of six 13 inch or 23-inch solar powered digital information displays for customers at six bus stops throughout the City.
- Electric Bus Pilot – Purchase of four electric conventional buses (2024)
- Transit 5-year Business Plan (2025-2029)
- Transit Building Addition – Construction of an 1800 square metre facility to accommodate 40 buses and provide the charging infrastructure for fully electric and hybrid transit vehicles (details of this project are contained in EICS-21-22 Proposed Roads Parks & Forestry/Transit Campus Master Plan).
Let’s hope that all of these projects get funded by the three levels of government.