For Immediate Release

28 January 2025

VANCOUVER – The federal government has announced $66 million per year in capital funding for TransLink over the next 10 years starting from 2026. While this is a step towards ensuring our system is maintained, it falls short of their responsibility to Canadians.

The public transit financial crisis exists across the country – from Halifax to Windsor to Castlegar, our cities are desperate for transit investment. People are getting left behind by full buses, even in small cities now. Transit disinvestment has become such a part of our national identity that British reality shows make fun of us. Investing in transit is popular with the public and the business community. It is good for economy. It is good for social justice. It creates good jobs.

Why just $66 million per year? How big does the Canadian transit crisis have to get before the federal government acknowledges the transit experiences of the average Canadian? Too many are forced to deal with slow, overcrowded, unreliable buses, whereas too many others simply don’t have access to service that is in any way competitive with driving.

What’s more, the federal government is not allowing TransLink to use these funds to address TransLink’s $600 million operating deficit. The funds can only be used to repair existing equipment, or expand service. The funds cannot be used to actually operate new transit services, nor to prevent impending service cuts.

We ask the federal government to release the amount that TransLink and other agencies will get through the Metro-Region Agreements funding stream so that important projects such as the R2 RapidBus extension, and BRT can proceed without delay, which helps improve regional connectivity and reduces congestion on the road.

And more broadly, in the context of a potential recession and the need for economic stimulus, there’s never been a better time to draw up a plan that promises better transit for the Canadians that need it, and the people that wish they had transit access at all. This plan could include a focus on how to make transit cheaper to build, like in Spain or South Korea where each kilometre of subway costs a fraction of what we spend in Canada. 

Investing in fast, reliable, abundant transit saves Canadians money, boosts the economy, creates jobs, and it ensures that we’re no longer a laughing stock.

“In Canada, too many people are forced to go out and spend $30,000 on a car because transit in their neighbourhood is too slow and too unreliable. I’m not talking about the people who love driving, I’m talking about the people who would rather spend that money on their student loans and piano lessons for their kid. When are we going to see a funding announcement that will finally let that person save $30,000?”

-Denis Agar, Executive Director, Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders

Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders is a non-profit that represents our region’s one million transit riders. We’ve often been left out of the conversation, and we’re here to speak up for faster, more reliable, more abundant transit. We’re focused on the growing number of bus routes where riders are left behind by full buses, day after day, primarily in Surrey and South Vancouver, as well as the urgent need for bus lanes that cost almost nothing but massively improve commutes for hundreds of thousands of people.