As city council dithers about the LRT, Hamilton’s priorities appear increasingly out of step with both provincial and federal governments. Audits released last week by the senior levels of government stress the importance of transit in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting energy use as well as accommodating growth.
An energy report from the provincial environmental commissioner calls for “formal targets for reducing fossil fuel consumption” and says both the province and “municipal councils” should cut transportation emissions by “making transit faster and more reliable” and deal with massive growth through “complete communities served by good transit and active transportation infrastructure.” Its number one recommendation is that “all public bodies in Ontario should get serious about a ‘cleaner, leaner, greener’ approach to energy.”
It also praises the Ontario government for spending more last year on transit ($3.6 billion) than on highways ($3.2 billion), a standard that Hamilton is a long way from achieving especially with respect to capital dollars. The 2016 capital budget allocated four times as much to roads as to transit, and when only net spending is compared, just over $50 million is being directed to road construction and only $3.7 million to transit.
Much of that money comes to Hamilton from federal gas tax transfers of about $32 million a year – with $3 million going to transit and nearly $29 million to roads. A federal audit of the gas tax spending released last week says that’s not what was intended by the funding transfer to municipal governments and slams the federal ministry for failing to ensure the proper use of those monies.
“The original objective was to provide reliable, predictable funding in support of environmentally sustainable municipal infrastructure that contributes to cleaner air, cleaner water, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions,” it states. “Infrastructure Canada was not able to measure performance against its three environmental objectives.”
The funding program was designed by the Liberal government of Paul Martin, but was almost entirely implemented during the decade that Stephen Harper was Prime Minister. The audit presumably tries to set a higher standard for the disbursement of infrastructure monies by the new Liberal government.
A breakdown of Hamilton’s gas tax spending to the end of 2012 (total of $155 million) showed more than half ($78 million) went to the roads budget, and the entire $31 million for 2009 was spent on city hall renovations. Transit got $6 million and the rest went to composting and recycling infrastructure. Since then, over 90 percent has gone to roads and the remainder to replacing HSR buses.
The federal audit approvingly notes that “five of Canada’s largest cities – Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa – have dedicated most or all of their funding to public transit.” It goes on to warn that the failure of Infrastructure Canada to monitor the gas tax allocation means that “Canadians do not know what results have been achieved for the money spent, and with continuing funding, it is unclear what results they can expect in the future.”
The provincial energy audit emphasizes the critical need for more government action on climate change. It advises that “transportation is Ontario’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions” and calls for a coordinated provincial strategy to counter urban sprawl.
“Low-density, car-dependent communities have been created that result in high fuel use, harmful emissions and traffic congestion and impacts on human health through air pollution and reduced physical activity,” argues the commissioner. “The per capita greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels are higher in the outer reaches of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, where urban densities are lower than in the more dense inner areas.”
To further enhance transit use, the report calls for municipal councils and the province to give transit vehicles priority on highways and key arterial roads and to increase electrification of transportation vehicles. It notes only 9 percent of Ontario’s electricity last year came from fossil fuels (natural gas) and that this can be further reduced by efforts to cut peak period usage.