The longer the public transit funding crisis lasts, the more it risks causing ridership to drop, fears sustainable mobility consultant David Cooper, who has gone through a lot of upheaval as a manager in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. To get out of this, Ottawa must no longer only contribute to building new infrastructure, he says, but also finance the operation of the networks.
What there is to know
Beyond financing issues, the public transport crisis will also weaken ridership if it continues, according to an expert.
The latter first calls on Ottawa to finance the operation of the networks.
Other representatives on Monday argued the need to examine several other sources of funding.
“The main risk at the moment is that if we continue to have a crisis every year, people will move further and further away from public transportation. And Montreal will lose its leading position in this area,” explains the founder of Leading Mobility, David Cooper, in an interview.
Former mobility manager at TransLink, the Vancouver transportation company, but also at the City of Toronto and Calgary, Mr. Cooper testified Monday in Montreal before the Commission on Finance and Administration, on the sidelines of the consultation on the metropolitan financing of public transport.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LEADING MOBILITY
David Cooper
He says two things must be done to reverse the trend. “First, the federal government needs to start funding operations again, hours of service, that sort of thing. In Montreal, in the short term, this would mean, for example, that when the new Réseau express métropolitain stations open, Ottawa would be there financially,” indicates Mr. Cooper.
A slow-motion debate
Its release is reminiscent of last March, the transportation companies of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver asked Ottawa to advance the funding promised in the new Permanent Fund for Public Transportation. These sums must be paid in 2026, but the carriers want them now.
“The last program was in 2023 and the next in 2026. This means that for three years, in addition to not financing operations, Ottawa will not have financed infrastructure projects, while having a very green discourse », Criticized the Quebec Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, who is still in negotiations with Quebec transport companies.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, quickly closed the door to such a request, arguing that the money is already on the table and that it is up to the provinces to bring the projects to fruition.
The second thing to do, says David Cooper, “is that the government of Quebec must assume its role and allow cities to create more financial tools.” “We need strong regulations to generate revenue. The examples are there, the data too, we know them,” he implores.
“A kilometer tax, for example, must be able to be done quickly. We are there. […] Nobody likes paying more taxes, I don’t like it either, but at some point you have to make a collective decision, otherwise you miss an opportunity,” adds the expert.
Like the words of the president of the Société de transport de Montréal, Éric Alan Caldwell, David Cooper believes that the debate must stop “concentrating on expenses”. “People need to realize that reducing expenses means preparing to wait longer for a bus or metro. We’re at a point where we just won’t be able to get on board if we continue to cut. »
Wages to be lowered, parking to be priced
Earlier in the day, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Michel Leblanc, also suggested examining the state of municipal salaries to better finance public transportation.
“We do not look at the situation of municipal employees, who have a salary 36% higher than Quebec government civil servants. If the City had the same average salary level as these civil servants, it would generate $723 million annually in 2024. […] which could be used to finance priorities for Montrealers,” he explained.
At the Montreal Regional Environmental Council, among other things, we reiterated that the City could free up more than 500 million per year, on average, by pricing all its on-street parking spaces.
The organization calculates that the average annual cost of a parking space is approximately $1,275 per year for the City of Montreal.
By multiplying this number by the number of free parking spaces, or approximately 450,000, we arrive at $573.7 million.
Urban studies professor at UQAM Florence Junca-Adenot, for her part, pleaded for a tax on developments. “It includes taxes near new public transportation infrastructures, but it also introduces the notion of taxation near highways and the possibility of having a transportation tax that would be financed by business owners,” a- she said.
This principle is also supported by transport planning expert Pierre Barrieau, who recalled that taxation on company payroll applies in several French cities, in particular to finance tramway projects.