THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay city transit fleet will be receiving an upgrade with the help of annual funding from the province.
On Wednesday, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP, Bill Mauro, announced the city would receive $2 million from the annual gas tax fund.
“Part of what we are trying to do as a government is provide relief to municipalities so they have the ability to control their taxes as best they are able and still be able to provide good quality public services to the people they are elected to represent,” Mauro said.
The gas tax fund provides municipalities with two cents per litre of gas tax revenues annually. The fund fluctuates from year to year and is based on usage. Last year, the city received just under $2 million and according to Mauro, Thunder Bay has received $25 million in total gas tax funding.
The funding is meant to assist municipalities with expanding and enhancing public transportation systems. Brad Loroff, manager of transit services with the city of Thunder Bay, said the gas tax money this year will be used to leverage the purchase 12 new low-floor accessible buses and 12 accessible vans.
“It’s a critical piece of funding that the city of Thunder Bay requires to maintain and pursue improvements to public transit in the city,” Loroff said. “What’s exciting about this year is what started in 2017. With the unprecedented level of funding that came through the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF), it’s allowed us to leverage this year’s gas tax contribution from the province to help fund the fleet investment we made in 2017/2018.”
The city has 48 transit units in its fleet and the new units will not increase its fleet, but replace aging buses.
“It doesn’t increase the fleet size, but it helps us with fleet renewal,” Loroff said. “To maintain a modern and efficient fleet is what’s important. And by maintaining a modern and efficient fleet helps you maintain a better control of your operating costs.”
Mauro said the gas tax funding provides relief to the tax base of municipalities while also strengthening public transportation, which he said is important to all people across Ontario.
“Our hope is that with some of this capacity, this $25 million, the city can see its way forward to maybe increase routes, or to increase the frequency on the routes that already exist,” he said. “Perhaps then more people will begin to use transit than currently is the case.”
Mauro added the government of Ontario has committed to increase gas tax funding by 4 cents in 2021/22 and clarified that this is not an increase in the price paid at the pump by drivers.
“It will be doubled by 2022, and will increase each year by about half a cent per year per litre that we will flow from that revenue stream to municipalities,” Mauro said. “Based on this year’s usage, the city getting $2 million, by 2021/22, that could be as much as $4 million on an annual basis.”
According to Loroff, this year’s funding will focus on supporting the PTIF investments made by city transit, however, with the increase expected in gas tax funding by 2021/22, future enhancements may focus on recommendations from a route optimization study that is currently ongoing.
