As transit funding gap between Ottawa and Toronto widens, lobbying revs up

New data from the Ontario government's Financial Accountability Office shows the Toronto economic region gets far more funding to operate its ailing transit providers than the area including Ottawa — and the gap is growing wider. 

During the pandemic, the province joined with the federal government to help keep buses and trains going. But that money has run out, with nothing in the books to replace it. 

The Toronto economic region received per-resident subsidies of $191 in 2022-23, while Ottawa's region (which also includes five other transit agencies in eastern Ontario) got $59.61. 

That gulf is projected to widen in 2024-25, with Toronto's per-resident subsidy rising to $196.49 and Ottawa's falling to $31.91. The capital region's surviving funding mainly consists of a share of the provincial gas tax.

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"It's not shocking that they're going to get more money," said Orléans MPP Stephen Blais. "But when you calculate it on a per-resident basis and it's five or six times greater, I think that's obviously unfair. It's irresponsible."

The Liberal parliamentarian and former Ottawa city councillor requested the review of operational subsidies, with the aim of quantifying what he and other politicians have been complaining about for years. 

'Not fair' to Ottawa residents

The new data comes one month into the "Fairness for Ottawa" campaign of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who told CBC it validates an argument he's likely repeated often in his recent lobbying marathon. 

"That's not fair to Ottawa residents," he said. "That's the balance we need to fix and achieve." 

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Without a final word on increased provincial or federal funding, councillors are headed into a challenging budget season with a $120-million sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. 

Options to fill the shortfall include substantial fare hikes and service cuts, representing the "painful decisions" transit general manager Renée Amilcar says her team has been forced to make — including a change to LRT frequency that councillors are now considering rolling back. 

"If you raise fares, you're not going to be price-competitive with the car. If you cut service, you're not going to be time-competitive with the car. If you raise taxes, everyone who doesn't use transit is going to be wondering what the heck they're paying for," said Blais.

Advocates call this frightening potentiality a "transit death spiral," and some warn it could take the city down a road of no return.  

System needs to work

Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden, who also acts as the NDP's transit critic, appeared before Ottawa's transit commission to deliver that warning and pledge to advocate for funding from across the aisle. 

He warned that it could be an uphill battle. 

"The premier has told me privately, and he said publicly, that until we get our LRT house in order we can't expect any more money from Queen's Park for operating funds for transit," he said. 

Exactly what that would entail, Premier Doug Ford will not say, Harden noted.

Blais agreed that Ford wants "skin in the game" in a way Ottawa will never be able to achieve through cuts, and argued the city needs to invest more into the system. 

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City 'shot themselves in the foot'

Unlike Toronto, Ottawa was unable to secure any transit funding in the nearly half-billion-dollar "new deal" with the province it signed earlier this year. 

Blais said the city "shot themselves in the foot," and needs a new negotiating strategy. 

"They need to be looking at the whole chess board and make their decisions with that mentality, as opposed to just trying to get through the crisis immediately in front of them," he said. 

Sutcliffe wholeheartedly disagreed.

"We agreed that we would keep talking about transit, and about other priorities that we share," he said. "The deal was not a one-time thing. I didn't sign anything saying I'm never asking for any more money from other levels of government because I got this deal."

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He also bristled at an idea put forward by Harden — that the premier feels Ottawa's LRT debacle "impugned our reputation for funding at Queen's Park" — pointing to ongoing and "very, very productive" conversations with his counterparts in Toronto and at Parliament Hill. 

"These are all good people who care about the City of Ottawa," Sutcliffe said. "They're all people who want to do the right thing."