#brampoli Federal Transit Money for Brampton: Formula and Clarification on Mississauga’s Allotment

Last week there was a federal announcement for transit funding for Ontario. The Province provided matching funding and we assume municipalities have the option to contribute an amount they choose to.

There was some discussion in the #brampoli hashtag on how the funding was calculated for Brampton. First, here’s what was announced:

And here’s the specific Brampton reference:

How was the money for Brampton calculated?  We contacted the Minister of Infrastructure office and received the below reply.

“Allocations for public transit for Phase 2 were developed from the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s (CUTA) 2015 Fact Book for conventional ridership, as this is the most recent data available. Specialized transit figures were also included, where applicable. These numbers were complemented with data provided by the provinces for non-CUTA recognized systems.

The calculation for the province [Ontario] was based on 70% ridership and 30% population formula. Within the province, allocations to each system were done on a 100% ridership basis.”

We thank the Minister’s office for their reply. Further, they got back to us quickly and we simply used the email address on the news release. We would encourage people to send an email and ask for specific details if they are required because it can sometimes be helpful at getting a complete picture.

What was Brampton Transit’s ridership in 2015? This blog post by Sean Marshall provides the response:

Sean notes that this is from: “GTHA transit agency annual growth rates, 2013 to 2015. Adapted from TTC 2016 Ridership Update, page 5.“

We’re posting this for information purposes and are not suggesting that this is a good or not so good formula. We simply hope it addresses the question raised.

Mississauga’s Allocation: Did they get $800 million from the federal government?

In addition to the formula discussion above, there was some in #brampoli who suggested that the City of Mississauga received $800 million from the federal government. This is not correct as shown in the chart below (total column added by us).

Further, in this news release by the City of Mississauga.

“Today’s investment will see over $800 million in dedicated funds – including matching funds from the province and the City of Mississauga – flow to the City of Mississauga over the next decade. This is good news for our community, our residents, and our future growth as a city. Mississauga is home to almost 800,000 residents from every country, and over 88,000 businesses. We are a city in demand and a place where the world comes to work. High-quality infrastructure allows us to compete on a global stage, attract new business, and most importantly, create jobs for our residents.

The key words in the news release are “including matching funds from the province and the City of Mississauga” (emphasis added)

To be clear, the City of Mississauga did not receive $800 million just from the federal government. The City itself made a contribution to get the number to $800 million. So, we look forward to seeing what the City of Brampton decides to do.

 Providing this information isn’t meant as a comment on the broader issue of regional transit funding fairness. In fact, our group is very clear that we think several projects in Brampton would be a better use of provincial and federal funding on an evidence-based basis rather than:

1. The one-stop Scarborough subway, which has seen its ridership projections drop, capital budget go up, bus travel times increased and route shortened. There’s a great article in the Star here explaining the situation.

2. Converting the planned Sheppard LRT to a subway. Our fellow transit advocates at CodeRedTO have provided the below graph;

3. Fully grade separated the Eglinton West LRT. It’s not needed. Star article here.