Dec. 7, 2022
Burlington will get about $1.5 million as part of up to $505 million in federal-provincial to help municipal transit systems, according to the province. The funding is being delivered through Phase 4 of the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.
Phase 4 of the Safe Restart Agreement will help municipal transit systems address costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic between February 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Municipalities will be able to use their funding allocations to cover revenue losses, operating expenses, and provincial transit priority projects, including fare and service integration and On-Demand transit.
“The fact that senior levels of government have committed to provide funding for transit operations is a significant milestone,” commented Jim Young, BFAST’s representative on the national Keep Transit Moving coalition. “Municipal transit systems need support for operating expenses and used to get it from the province. Funding only capital expenditures provides money for new equipment, but does nothing to help transit systems hire the operators and provide the maintenance services to run it.”
This funding builds on the more than $2 billion in dedicated federal-provincial money that has helped transit systems across the province respond to the impact of COVID-19.
107 municipalities across Ontario have been allocated funding through Phase 4 of the Safe Restart Agreement. Allocations for Phase 4 of SRA funding include a base amount of $5,000 plus a remaining allocation amount based on actual impacts reported through the first three phases of SRA funding.