Keep your promise to fund public transit in Ontario

107 municipalities receive funding through the Provincial Gas Tax Program. The Provincial Government cancelled an estimated $364 million per year in promised funding to these municipalities without notice in their 2019 Provincial Budget[1], putting our public transit service at risk[2].

Municipal public transit in Ontario has been underfunded since 1998 when the Harris government cut the fifty per cent subsidy of the net operating costs of municipal transit agencies [3]. Instead agencies have received a much smaller amount of funding through the Province’s gas tax program since 2004 [4].

To make life affordable, we need good public transit. We need more funding for our municipal public transit systems, so we can have lower fares and better service.

The Provincial Government has quietly announced that they are going back on their promise to honour the previous government's commitment to double funding for municipal transit [5][6]. This increase in funding is critical in supporting a growing number of municipal transit systems across Ontario, serving over 90% of Ontario’s population [7], that connect our communities. It’s also imperative that long-term stable funding is reinstated for our transit systems to serve our communities well.

Together we can hold the new government to their promise to double their contribution to municipalities and urge them to re-instate stable operating funding.

Supporting Organizations:
ActionKeele - North York
Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet (CUSP) - Thunder Bay
CodeRedTO - Toronto
Environment Hamilton
Hamilton Transit Riders Union
Friends of Sudbury Transit
Healthy Transportation Coalition - Ottawa
Keep York Moving - York Region
London Transit Riders Alliance
London Environmental Network
Scarborough Transit Action Network
South Etobicoke Transit Action Committee
Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA)
Transit Action Alliance of Guelph (TAAG)
TTCriders - Toronto

[1] https://budget.ontario.ca/pdf/2019/2019-ontario-budget-en.pdf
[2] https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2019/01/2018-19-gas-tax-funding-by-municipality.html
[3] https://www.blogto.com/city/2016/04/the_year_it_all_went_down_the_tubes_for_the_ttc/
[4] http://www.octn.ca/uploads/userfiles/files/Kevin%20Dowling%20-%20Gas%20Tax%20Introduction.pdf
[5] https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2017/01/enhanced-gas-tax-program.html
[6] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-gas-prices-fuel-tax-1.4665386
[7]http://www.octn.ca/uploads/userfiles/files/Questions%20and%20Answers%20on%20the%20Provincial%20Gas%20Tax%20MTO%20March%202017.pdf