Edmonton councillors say transit needs more stable funding for the future
Edmonton faces millions in rising costs for transit in the coming years. (Cort Sloan/CBC)Edmonton city councillors are pushing for a more consistent and reliable way to pay for public transit as bus and LRT service is expected to cost millions more in the coming years. City administration outlined potential options for generating revenue to fund transit and presented those in a new report to council's executive committee meeting on Wednesday.Options include a dedicated transit tax, increasing property taxes, imposing a local improvement tax, raising fares, and introducing development charges or off-site levies. Ashley Salvador, councillor for Ward Métis, suggested the city formulate a multi-year plan for stable and consistent public transit funding. "We have chronically underfunded transit for decades at this point," Salvador said. "Public transit is a core essential service and it deserves to be funded as such." The committee agreed to Salvador's motion directing administration to dr
Edmonton city councillors are pushing for a more consistent and reliable way to pay for public transit as bus and LRT service is expected to cost millions more in the coming years.
City administration outlined potential options for generating revenue to fund transit and presented those in a new report to council's executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
Options include a dedicated transit tax, increasing property taxes, imposing a local improvement tax, raising fares, and introducing development charges or off-site levies.
Ashley Salvador, councillor for Ward Métis, suggested the city formulate a multi-year plan for stable and consistent public transit funding.
"We have chronically underfunded transit for decades at this point," Salvador said. "Public transit is a core essential service and it deserves to be funded as such."
The committee agreed to Salvador's motion directing administration to draft the plan by next spring.
Salvador also said she can entertain a development charge, where companies pay a fee specifically for the public transit network as it builds a community.
"As we look to build out a complete network of public transit, it's really important that we're not leaving any communities behind."
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Administration looked into transportation-based revenue sources but found the city has no legislative authority to impose mechanisms like a motor fuel tax and a road use charge, the report shows. The provincial Traffic Safety Act prohibits the road use charge.
Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette echoed the need for better service to entice people to take transit.
"We really do have very strongly embedded car culture," he said. "We also need to have robust alternatives that are attractive — we're not going to get there by nickel and diming."
Service gaps
The city is already lagging behind in service expectations.
Sarah Feldman, director of business integration and workforce development with the Edmonton Transit Service, said administration reviewed service for the entire city to identify service gaps.
From 2015 to 2022, Edmonton's population grew by approximately 18 per cent but conventional bus service hours didn't increase to meet the need, Feldmand said in an email to CBC News.
This analysis shows that service gaps total approximately 5,000 conventional bus hours a week or 260,000 hours a year.
The report outlines two main scenarios from 2024 to 2033: maintaining the same service levels or expanding it.
If relying on property taxes to fund ongoing service, the status quo would require a 0.3 per cent dedicated tax increase every year beginning in 2024.
Growing the service would require a 0.7 per cent dedicated tax increase every year, the report shows.
The city estimates it will need another $15.4 million in operating funds starting in 2024 to maintain 2022 levels. And it plans to buy 40 more buses starting in 2025 that would require another $180.7 million.
Ward Karhiio Coun. Keren Tang said there's an urgency to address the funding shortfall.
"If we don't do something now, that gap in revenue generation will continue to grow and we're going to grow to a point where we just have to really expect really bad service."
Funding formula and advocacy
Transit takes up 13 per cent of the city's $3.3 billion operating budget, the second largest portion after the police, Paquette noted.
Paquette suggests that a funding formula is one mechanism to create certainty in funding to expand transit with population growth in future years.
"A sustainable, predictable model for funding transit tied to growth helps remove the politics from the conversation," Paquette wrote in an email. "It is clear to the public that transit has been neglected or too reliant on user fee increases and it's time we reverse that trend."
City administration says there are options to advocate to the provincial and federal governments for various grants and support.
The federal government is planning to introduce a permanent public transit fund starting in 2026, which Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said could be leveraged to support capital investments in transit.
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