Public transit funding is heading for a wall. Gas tax revenues are likely to decline with the electrification of transportation. The climate crisis also calls for a greater supply of public transport, because it helps to reduce greenhouse gases. The situation is pressing, given that the car fleet is constantly increasing. Similarly, we recently learned that the Société de transport de Montréal had a shortfall of $43 million and that it had to find new sources of revenue. In 2019, another report told us that the cost of implementing the reduced rate for low-income households on the island of Montreal, an essential measure, would cost more than $30 million.
Everyone takes advantage of public transport. This reduces parking demand and traffic congestion. The Montreal Metropolitan Community says the costs of traffic congestion were $4.2 billion in 2018.
Similarly, there is public support for investments in public transit. In 2019, a survey by the firm CROP indicated that “68% of residents of the greater Montreal area believe that investments in public transit are the solution to road congestion as well as to the reduction of travel times and emissions. of GHG”.
Pricing to be extended
In Quebec cities, on-street parking spaces represent costs since they occupy public space and require maintenance. The fact that their users do not pay to use them represents an injustice for taxpayers who must park their car on their own land since they pay property taxes and maintenance costs (eg snow removal) on the space. of their parking lot. In the Montreal metropolitan area, the median price for acquiring a parking space was $28,168. This price does not include property taxes and maintenance. In Montreal alone, there are between 475,000 and 515,000 on-street parking spaces and 90% were not priced by sticker or by parking meter in 2016. Wouldn’t it be time to price these spaces for better justice and d take the opportunity to create a new source of funding for public transit?
Likewise, wouldn’t it be a good idea to tax off-street parking? In 2016, the island of Montreal could count on at least 470,000 parking spaces of this type. This already taxes part of it with the tax on car parks.
Some would be tempted to say that this source of funding could be threatened by the fact that a major modal shift occurs, which would reduce funding and bring us back to the same problem. However, this logic would have the effect of preventing the implementation of any eco-taxation measure. In addition, the fact that many parking lots are no longer used is only beneficial since they could be converted into islands of greenery or be used to construct buildings.
This text could also have mentioned other sources of financing, such as the tax on charging electric cars or a tax on the payroll of companies. Regardless of the source, it remains urgent to act as quickly as possible in order to meet the needs.