Survey Response: Kelvin Galbraith, Candidate for Councillor, Ward 1

Question 1:

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

Every trip taken on transit can eliminate a single occupied vehicle trip so transit does play a role in reducing traffic congestion. This council has certainly invested in our Transit system and I have personally supported every increase in both investment and free offerings to seniors and students. In terms of road maintenance expenditures, reducing the amount of vehicles on a roadway can have direct maintenance savings for road renewal and repair.

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?

I would support increasing the expenditure of our Handivan service as I have heard from many that it is over-subscribed. I think we need to increase our fleet of smaller buses and pick ups with possibly electric vehicles.

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?

I support the objective of increasing transit rider share but we need to be realistic and moving from 4% to 20% is a lofty goal.  Transit will play a very important role in our future when we have our intensified communities surrounding our Go Stations and parking is limited.  Unfortunately the current market conditions have really slowed that development so this goal may also need to be delayed until we start to see some of this new type of development.

Question 4:

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

Yes I support continued expansion of our transit ridership and investment.  In ward 1 specifically we are seeing buses so full that they cannot accommodate any more riders. I would support increasing this service to every 10 minutes along Plains road.

Question 5:

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

I have used it but not often.  I will commit to using it more in the future.  When I travel I always use public transit.

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.

I think we need to continue to advocate to the Province that we have been making very successful gains in terms of ridership here in Burlington and that the Province does not need to intervene.  Our incentives for free ridership have given our students an experience at a young age where they can feel comfortable and will look to make future choices of vehicle ownership vs transit usage.  
Some of our busiest transit routes are ones shared between Hamilton and Burlington and it would be a shame to disrupt the success of these lines.  

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.

We do need to be very careful of changing our model for transit and allowing for a private company to take over several of our routes.  I would like to see the business model and have staffs opinion before making any decisions on this proposal.  This sounds like an Uber service to me which brings the single occupied vehicle back onto the roadway and less reliance on multi-passenger buses.