Public Transit Is Essential. Where’s the Support, Prime Minister?

Saying “it is not my problem” is a failure of leadership by our federal government. That is what our leaders in Ottawa were doing when transit layoffs were being announced here in B.C. and around the country. Apparently saving airlines, car companies and oil tycoons during this pandemic are priorities but keeping our transit system running is not.

Every night at 7 p.m. we bang our pots and cheer with pride for essential service workers. Those workers risk their lives and their own health to keep us all safe. But sudden transit cuts left workers scrambling to get to work. Thankfully, the B.C. government stepped in to stop the impending layoffs and get the federal government back to the table. But it is clear we need a new model to ensure public transit’s long-term viability and stability.

Sadly, we were not celebrating the expansion of transit but just fighting to keep transit going.

It would be akin to health-care workers at a hospital rejoicing over the fact that they did not have their budget for personal protective equipment cut, let alone being provided with more which is what we ought to be striving for during this crisis.

In the same way, public transit is just as critical a tool in the fight against COVID-19 for these frontline workers to get them safely, reliably and affordably to and from work. We would not dream of taking away their PPE during this crisis. It is frightening to think we came that close to taking away one of their key transportation methods.

Losing public transit options will have catastrophic effects, and that is not just our province sounding the alarm. Other major cities across the country are experiencing funding issues as well, although Vancouver’s is more precarious.

It is not just the riders that depend on these transit systems that would be negatively impacted. Business would be smart to recognize that this affects them as well. Public transit supports critical businesses, particularly those that (sadly) provide low wages. These are the businesses that employ the workers we have been hailing as heroes since the start of the pandemic. Simply put, those businesses would not be able to function without a fully operational transit system.

We need federal leadership to step up, recognize that there is great importance to this, and make it clear exactly how much funding is being set aside to allow provinces and municipalities the opportunity to plan appropriately. If this can be done to support businesses from airlines to big-box stores to even political parties, it can surely be done for something as crucial to so many of us as public transit.

Sadly, mere hours after our provincial government stepped in to halt the severe cuts to service and staff at TransLink and Premier John Horgan indicated he had positive talks with the federal government, instead of stepping up and pledging to support this critical infrastructure, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instead backpedaled and shirked away. Leadership is not saying “it is not our problem, it is yours.”

While all of us are grateful that our transit services have mostly been able to continue, we still have no details on how our public transit services will be able to continue to operate without making severe cuts. This leaves not only workers in a precarious spot wondering if the rescinded layoffs were just a stay of execution, but all transit users as well, particularly those who rely on it for their day-to-day activities. Can they make a doctor’s appointment, go to that job interview, or show up to work at a certain hour knowing with absolute certainty the rug won’t get pulled out from under our public transit system?

To be fair, the federal government should be lauded for their efforts to support Canadians and Canadian businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. But saving public transit — which mean saving workers, businesses, students, the elderly, and the disabled or disadvantaged — is also vital to our economy, especially as people try to get to work in the midst of one of the biggest crises of our lifetime.

The federal government has been oft-criticized in the past for overstepping their boundaries on issues which the individual provinces feel is their jurisdiction, and yet on an issue where the federal government’s involvement is not only appropriate but welcome, they choose to shirk responsibility?

The federal government should be embracing this opportunity, and working with all its provincial partners, to provide the urgent bridge funding needed at this moment to get us through this crisis, and to develop a new funding model that will ensure we don’t have to one day put public transit services on the chopping block again. Being transparent about what is being done now would be a good place to start.

As our economy reopens, businesses will be counting on public transit to provide people with the means to access their services. Businesses also count on public transit to transport workers who are vital to their operations — grocery store shelves do not stock themselves.

So many workers in Canada had their finances compromised because of the pandemic, and may be reluctant to commute without assurances that doing so is safe for their health.

Instead of saying “it is not our problem,” Prime Minister Trudeau can show his leadership and say “yes, we all in this together and the Canadian government is here to help.” He can do this by making a commitment to people and businesses across Canada by funding public transit. He can show workers that he has their back. Will he?