First Time in Canada
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2020
TORONTO -- Forty-five organizations representing physicians, business, labour, and transit users today released a letter calling on the federal government to provide emergency financial aid to Canada’s transit authorities.
It represents the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak that groups from across the country have come together to urge support for agencies suffering up to 90 percent ridership loss.
Health professionals, business, labour urge emergency transit funding
First Time in Canada
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2020
TORONTO -- Forty-five organizations representing physicians, business, labour, and transit users today released a letter calling on the federal government to provide emergency financial aid to Canada’s transit authorities.
It represents the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak that groups from across the country have come together to urge support for agencies suffering up to 90 percent ridership loss.
The letter -- signed by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Amalgamated Transit Union and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, among dozens of other signatories -- urges Prime Minister Trudeau to offer transit operators both immediate assistance and on-going, permanent funding.
The groups see public transit as crucial to the movement of essential workers during the pandemic and to Canada’s effort to build a sustainable recovery.
“Few aspects of our lives remain untouched by the impact of COVID-19; public transit is yet another area of our lives negatively impacted by this pandemic,” says Bianca Caramento, Manager of Policy and Government Relations at the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. “In order for our economy to recover and flourish, reliable and affordable public transit will serve to return Canadians to their jobs and spur economic activity."
Because transportation is among Canada’s largest sources of greenhouse gases, low-pollution public transit is vital to the country’s climate strategy.
“As health professionals, we know car exhaust is a big contributor to the climate crisis,” says Kingsley Kwok, frontline respiratory therapist and president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 575. “So it’s crucial we offer people alternatives to gas-burning automobiles. Transit buses and light rail are a big part of the solution -- and they need to be adequately funded by Ottawa.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Executive Director, TTC Riders
Read our letter in support of bus-only lanes and other transit priority measures on Queens Quay East, Parliament Street and Front Street West to ensure thousands of residents along growing waterfront communities and students attending George Brown College have reliable bus service.