News Release

BIG CITY MAYORS PROPOSE NATIONAL TRANSIT STRATEGY

(Halifax, March 5/07) -- A transit bus can carry as many passengers as 50 cars and pollutes up to 18 times less, but not if it’s out of service for lack of maintenance.

“Getting people out of their cars and onto public transit is an ideal way to reduce automobile emissions and end traffic congestion, but Canadian transit systems need $2 billion a year just to stay in good repair and expand to serve new riders,” said Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Peter Kelly. “We need a national strategy with long-term funding to maintain and expand public transit.”

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big City Mayors’ Caucus (BCMC) unveiled its proposed National Transit Strategy today in Montreal. Canada is the only G-8 country without a national transit plan and Canadian transit users pay a greater percentage of transit costs than riders in almost all other Western countries. The BCMC strategy calls for replacement of short-term funding with longer term, more predictable commitments from all levels of government.

“Paying for transit is a major issue for all municipalities and property taxes alone are not enough,” said Mayor Kelly. “We need predictable, long-term funding to pay for our transit system and to plan and finance projects like our Metro Link service, the fast ferry initiative and the rural transit express proposal.”

Mayor Kelly noted that significant strides have been made in HRM over the past few years with new services, new buses and the use of biofuels, however, buses, routes and services also have to be maintained, operated and improved upon year after year.

“It’s not merely a one-time cost but a long-term commitment. Continued improvements to HRM’s transit system and those of Canada’s other major cities are absolutely critical if we want to maintain and grow as healthy sustainable communities.”

In addition to $2 billion a year for capital expenses, the BCMC proposal calls for integrated land use and transportation planning, incentives to encourage people to use transit, research to support greater transit use, and measures to ensure all governments are accountable. Mayor Kelly serves on the BCMC Working Group on Transit, which authored the proposed strategy.

The BCMC National Transit Strategy is available on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ website at www.fcm.ca

- 30 -

Contact:
Mayor Peter Kelly
490-4010