Notepad: New Report “The Municipal Role in Transportation” – TPR Hamilton | Hamilton's Civic Affairs News Site

May 1, 2023
The Who Does What Series – academic papers which explore and try to explain Canada’s dynfunctional federalism in which municipalities have no constitutional status yet are required to deliver essential services – issued its latest paper “The Municipal Role in Transportation.”
The report notes how higher levels of government are willing [I’ll say happy] to provide municipalities with capital funding for new infrastruction, but not providing sustainable operating subsidies.
I did not know “Ottawa has the second-highest proportion of bicycle commuters in North America (after Portland, Oregon).”
On the failure of public-private partnerships:
“The public-private partnership (P3) model, which the federal government has made a condition of its recent contributions to capital financing of major transit infrastructure, further undermines the role of municipalities. It is well documented that P3s regularly fail to reduce costs, keep projects on budget, or ensure on-time completion of construction, nor do they remove risk (financial or otherwise) for governments,” writes York University Professor Patricia Burke Wood.
On the dysfunctional governance of transit in Toronto, Prof Wood notes:
– Metrolinx no longer has municipal representation, “its board is appointed by the provincial cabinet without legislative review”
– There is no coordinating body for transit in the GTHA.
– Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario lacking coordination with each other.