As Toronto celebrates a big win for transit funding and British Columbia pushes ahead towards greenlighting density near transit, the City of Ottawa is being urged to up its transit game, while Edmonton struggles with its electric bus fleet.
This week, Toronto and the Ontario government struck a deal in their mutual interests, with the province taking control of two major highways—the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway—to bail out the cash-strapped municipality. “The provincial support is worth around C$1.2 billion in operating funding over three years, with billions in ‘capital relief,’” reports Global News. The province will also hand Toronto $300 million in one-time funding to help with “safety, recovery, and sustainability” on the city’s transport network. And Ontario has agreed to help Toronto purchase 55 new subway cars, as long as the federal government also pitches in.
In exchange, the city will allow the province to take over the responsibility for Ontario Place, a park and event venue on the shore of Lake Ontario, “clearing the path for the Doug Ford government’s controversial redevelopment of the Crown lands.”
Provincial officials “also appear to have relented and agreed to pay for Toronto to run the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRTs,” Global writes. The deal includes extra money for the two lines, which will be run by the Toronto Transit Commission.
Toronto has “promised to meet or exceed its housing targets,” with a focus on building density around transit.
The deal comes as the provincial government in B.C. makes progress on efforts to increase density around transit hubs, with a final decision on new legislation likely coming soon, reports the Vancouver Sun.
The amendment would require local governments to approve high-rise developments of between eight and 20 storeys within 800 metres of a rapid transit station, and within 400 metres of a bus exchange.
Housing researcher Andy Yan, City Program director at Simon Fraser University, told the Sun that boosting density near transit could price low-income renters out of nearby markets, displacing residents who most rely on transit service.
B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon “has so far dismissed those concerns, saying the legislation still gives municipalities power to implement protections for renters or require high-rise builders to have a certain number of below-market rentals,” the Sun writes.
There may be further method to what opposition critics are describing as a mad dash to density. In an earlier report on the provincial legislation, Bill 47, CBC wrote that “Metro Vancouver mayors have been asking for $20 billion from higher levels of government for a massive upgrade of the transit system, including an entire rapid bus network, rapid transit to the North Shore, and a gondola to Simon Fraser University.”
While Ottawa’s response so far has been middling, some say federal interest “will increase with the new guarantees that housing development around transit hubs will now accelerate.”
Meanwhile, in the City of Ottawa, one transit advocate is blaming a lack of “political ambition” on the part of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and city council for a local transit services that is lagging behind in its post-pandemic recovery.
Inheriting “three years of inaction, decades of neglect, and several rounds of cuts” from the previous administration’s transit file, Sutcliffe and council could “take a page from fellow Canadian cities,” Nick Grover, executive member of Free Transit Ottawa, writes in a recent Ottawa Citizen op-ed. He cites Edmonton, Brampton, Charlottetown, and Metro Vancouver as cases in point.
But “the mayor and council have been unwilling to invest in improved and expanded bus service, tying its own hands with sub-inflationary tax increases and self-inflicted budget deficits,” Grover writes.
At least Ottawa didn’t sign up for Proterra electric buses, unlike Edmonton, which is enduring repeated breakdowns in its 60-strong fleet—even as the California-based manufacturer moves through a bankruptcy claim, CBC reports.
Edmonton Transit said only 16 of the 60 buses are currently on the road, with the rest in the shop for everything from battery repairs to software glitches. Some of the buses have been down for more than a year while the city waits for parts.
