Patrick Brown says $24 million in government funding to go towards Brampton transit

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Published August 18, 2020 at 6:50 pm

In an exclusive interview, Patrick Brown told Khaled Iwamura from inbrampton.com that $24 million from the province’s funding will go directly to Brampton transit.

In an exclusive interview, Patrick Brown told Khaled Iwamura from inbrampton.com that $24 million from the province’s funding will go directly to Brampton transit.

Recently, the City of Brampton received a total of $35 million from the province.

“This is a great first step. We identified about $50 million in COVID-related losses, so this covers a substantial amount of that,” Brown told Iwamura.

“The starting point is going to be with transit,” said Brown, explaining that $24 million will go towards Brampton transit.

“We faced significant losses in transit. We weren’t collecting revenue,” said Brown, “We had rear-door boarding; we had to make some changes to protect the operators.”

Additionally, back in July, Mayor Patrick Brown and City Council announced that investments from the governments of Canada and Ontario will directly support Brampton’s public transit infrastructure projects. 

Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, announced The Government of Canada’s investment of more than $45.3 million in four projects through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream (PTIS).

Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction and Member of Provincial Parliament for Brampton South, also announced that the Government of Ontario is contributing over $37.8 million to the public transit infrastructure projects.

The City of Brampton is contributing more than $30.2 million, which are all jointly through the Investing in Canada infrastructure plan.

The four projects include the following.

The first project will be the 2020-2021 Replacement Buses, which will feature a purchase of 32 conventional buses to maintain existing service levels and replace the retiring fleet. For this project, they will receive $9,132,000 in federal funding, $7,609,239 in provincial funding and $6,088,761 in municipal funding.

The second project will be the 2020-2024 Bus Refurbishments, which will feature the refurbishment of 300 conventional buses, including the repair and replacement of major components such as engines, suspensions and brakes. For this project, they will receive $22,243,218 in federal funding, $18,534,161 in provincial funding and $14,830,666 in municipal funding.

The third project will be the replacement of on-board cameras and digital video recorders which will feature the Addition of newer technologies on the entire bus fleet. This project will receive $2,000,000 in federal funding, $1,666,500 in provincial funding and $1,333,500 in municipal funding.

The fourth project will be the Downtown Transit Mobility Hub. This will be a new transit hub that will increase the number of bus bays, allowing for more service, new bus canopies, waiting area, concessions and include the requirements to upgrade the hub to hold electric buses. This project will receive $12,000,000 in federal funding, $9,999,000 in provincial funding and $8,001,000 in municipal funding.

“The investments will help increase the capacity and quality of our rapidly-growing transit system, providing a safer and healthier transportation solution for all. With the help of our Federal and Provincial partners, we are able to invest in our communities by supporting and growing our infrastructure,” said Mayor Patrick Brown.

“Reliable transit helps increase accessibility to services and jobs, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves the overall health of our community. I look forward to our continued partnerships to support our community here in Brampton.” 

For more information, visit www.brampton.ca

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