Should the
federal government be making more of an effort to improve your daily
commute -- or just butt out? With Queen’s Park still running a
deficit, provincial officials have welcomed recent cash from Ottawa
for cities and border areas. Unlike drivers elsewhere in Canada, we
in Ontario may not spend much time on the Trans-Canada highway --
what matters are urban expressways and streets.
The feds now
stream funds to both “national” transport priorities like border
crossing projects, ports and highways as well as to needy
municipalities. Big cities get money for transit and bridges, while
rural towns can spend their share on roads or waterworks.
Long faulted
for raking in billions from federal fuel taxes, Liberal governments
have started to put more cash into special infrastructure funds that
deliver money over several years. Under leader Paul Martin, the Libs
are also gradually increasing the percentage of fuel tax revenue
that is dedicated to transport use.
Before 2004,
Toronto was probably the largest city in the developed world not to
get help from the national government to run its transit system.
Motorists benefit indirectly -- decent urban transit can slow
congestion growth by convincing some people to take the train. By
2009, five cents from every litre of gas sold will be sent to
Canadian cities -- about $2 billion annually.
The NDP under
Jack Layton want to speed up the transfer, moving to the full amount
right away. Both the Liberals and NDP state the gas tax scheme
should be permanent. In a deal that kept the minority government in
power through the fall, Layton convinced Martin to top up the amount
already going to neglected urban transit systems.
Last week the
Conservatives announced they would honour commitments made by
Liberal governments, but the issue of whether the gas tax would
continue past 2010 might have to wait until a subsequent election.
It was not immediately clear whether the extra Liberal-NDP cash
would flow this year, should Stephen Harper become prime minister.
The Tories also
declared that big cities should be allowed to spend some of the gas
tax funds on roads, instead of just transit -- but the total amount
given would not increase accordingly.
In the election
of June 2004, the Conservatives had committed to maintaining
infrastructure programs -- but they made no secret that once the
funds were exhausted, Ottawa would leave most transport decisions to
the provinces.
As of last
Friday, there was some clarification from whether Harpers’ party
sees any future for Ottawa in building transport assets, once
existing programs expire. The Tories do offer $600 million a year
for highways and borders by 2010, permanently.
Adding that up,
the Grits contended that by allocating $2 billion over five years to
fund provincial roads, highways and border infrastructure, Tory
leader Stephen Harper would actually be spending less than the
federal government has already agreed to.
As the federal
parties bicker over the fate of one or two billion dollars, the
actual cost of rebuilding Canada’s transport network is in the tens
of billions. The provinces are on the hook for a great deal of this
shortfall, and the premiers want whoever is in power to enjoin a
national transport strategy. In their official party election
platforms, neither the Tories nor Liberals agreed to help the
provinces properly coordinate the complex web of road, marine, rail
and air assets in this country.
The closest the
Conservatives come to a comprehensive overview is their proposed
national Road Congestion Index. Whether or not it could work, this
measurement would presumably examine whether infrastructure spending
actually results in an easing of congestion.