My Alerts Montréal, May 9, 2012 – As part of the public consultations held by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) Transportation Commission, the City of Montréal and the STM today tabled a report in which they suggest solutions for public transit funding.
“The sustainable, economic development of the greater Montréal area is inextricably linked to public transportation and maintaining our public infrastructure. To that end, we can no longer count on property taxes only, and we must find new funding sources. In fact, the government was quite open to the idea of analyzing any proposal that municipal officials can agree on. Today, we are tabling a report that features a comprehensive list of fair proposals that would help solve funding problems for public transit in the greater Montréal area,” declared Michel Bissonnet, Montréal executive committee member in charge of transportation.
Confronted with a growing number of commuters, road congestion, commitments to reductions in GHG emissions and urban sprawl, the CMM adopted a land use plan, the Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de développement (PMAD), last December that targets a 5% modal transfer in favour of public transit by 2021. The CMM estimates that the public transit projects slated for completion by 2020 in the Plan will require $23 billion. These investments will initially make it possible to repair installations and replace vehicles (buses, metro cars, trains), followed by providing the metropolitan area with a public transit system that offers superior performance thanks to the acquisition of new metro cars, the extension of metro lines, the deployment of initial tramway lines, of a light-rail system on the South shore, of new commuter train lines and of a bus priority network. The CMM’s land-use plan includes the $11.5 B investments called for by the STM in its 2020 Strategic Plan, which anticipates ridership will increase to 540 million passenger rides a year by 2020.
“Despite sustained contributions by transit users, the agglomeration of Montréal and by the other municipalities in the metropolitan area, current financial resources will remain insufficient to cover the priority investments needed to maintain assets and expand the offer of service. We are proposing a mix of new funding sources and traffic regulating measures, namely tolls, taxes on gas, car registration fees, and taxes on parking, that must generate $262 M in additional funds for Montréal alone by 2020. In the short term, public transit must be able to count on an increase in current funding sources, like the tax on gas, but also on the establishment of highway tolls,” indicated Michel Labrecque, chairman of the STM board of directors.
To meet public transit funding requirements, the City of Montréal and the STM recommend the following mix of measures:
For the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal:
1. Prioritize all roadway and public transit projects featured in the land-use plan (PMAD);
2. Take every measure to ensure highway tolls are installed throughout the metropolitan area with revenues serving to fund the maintenance of road and transit infrastructure, as well as public transit expansion projects, apply different fares according to time of day or weekday, and adjust fees to encourage the use of more energy-efficient vehicles (hybrid or electric cars, taxis, etc.);
3. Give local government the authority to levy the half-a-cent per litre tax on gas collected annually throughout the AMT’s territory to fund the municipal portion of regional public transit projects. In 2022, this increase will reach 5 cents per litre. Of that sum, the STM’s share would be $110 M;
4. Give local government the authority to collect the $45 tax on car registration throughout the AMT territory, a move that would see annual revenue rise from $30 M to $83 M and adjust fees to encourage the use of more energy-efficient vehicles (hybrid or electric cars, taxis, etc.);
5. Study the option of introducing a betterment tax and a parking tax throughout the metropolitan area, together with municipalities in the Montréal area.
For the Government of Québec:
6. Redistribute financial resources from FORT, the Fonds des infrastructures routières et de transport en commun, in favour of public transit, as it currently allocates 82% of funds to highway infrastructure and 18% to public transit, in order to give priority to public transit and highway infrastructure maintenance projects, as well as projects designed to develop public transit and active means of transportation;
7. Uphold its subsidies for transit service improvements at the minimum 50% and gradually increase the sums allocated through the PAGAST program from its $150 M Green Fund, raising it from $50 M to $200 M by 2020, to support future services introduced by the STM;
8. Establish a $25 M a year fund that would serve to make the métro system universally accessible. This fund would make it possible to equip an additional 15 stations with elevators and related equipment, bringing the number of elevator-accessible stations to 40% over a 10-year period.
For the Government of Canada:
9. Index the gas excise tax transfers (SOFIL) according to the consumer price index.
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