Opinion: To build Canada’s future, we need to invest in public transit | Daily Hive

Testing of a new generation Mark V train at Alstom's manufacturing plant at Kingston, Ontario in August 2023, ahead of its delivery to Metro Vancouver for the SkyTrain system. (TransLink)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Chris Ng, a volunteer at Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders, a non-profit organization that’s pushing for faster, more reliable, more abundant public transit across the region. He is also a physics student at the University of British Columbia with an interest in urban planning, energy, and industrial policy.

In the tumultuous weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day,” millions of auto workers across Canada are still running in confusion and fear, but every good crisis comes with an opportunity.

From the Avro Arrow fighter jet to Nortel, Canada has a history of advancement and progress, but we also have a history of dependence and squandered opportunity. For too long, Canada has been one giant branch plant for American cars. However, Canada can become a world leader in public transit in its own right, and we must act quickly to not squander this opportunity.

First, Canada is already a regional leader in public transit, and building on this comparative advantage is the next natural step. Second, Canadian workers and families can benefit greatly from growing public transit, both in ridership and the jobs supported by these services.

You might also like:

But most importantly, to become a world leader in public transit, what Canada needs is direction and political will, and this current moment has been long overdue in lighting a fire under our chairs.

Canada’s existing lead on public transit

Canada is home to three of the top six busiest bus systems in North America, three of the top five subway systems in North America for ridership, and the single busiest bus line in Canada or the U.S.

commercial broadway station 99 b-line translink f

99 B-Line, the busiest bus route in Canada and the United States, at SkyTrain Commercial-Broadway Station in Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

But alongside that, Canada is also home to two of North America’s biggest bus manufacturers — New Flyer and Nova Bus — which American public transit systems also heavily rely upon. Their buses are the backbone of both every Canadian public transit system and most American systems, including in New York City, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. We also manufacture trains and streetcars at four Alstom plants across Ontario and Quebec.

Clearly, Canadian public transit has found a recipe for success — both in ridership growth and in industrial capacity and expertise.

Beyond this, Canadian leaders and the Canadian public are also much more familiar and receptive to public transit than their American counterparts. For instance, many provincial leaders in British Columbia take public transit every day, which gives them a direct connection to the needs of public transit riders that some other politicians don’t have.

Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, two right-leaning politicians, are very supportive of public transit.

Ford spends twice as much per capita on public transit construction as B.C., and Smith has proposed a visionary passenger rail plan that leaves other provinces in the dust.

Map of the vision for new passenger rail lines across Alberta, April 2024. (Government of Alberta)

This does not mean that Canada has mastered public transit in any way, far from it, and there are many notable examples of huge problems during design and construction, but the fact that we have growing pains shows that we at least want to grow. This also means that we have the scale to tackle problems that other nations haven’t tried to yet.

Every English-speaking country is struggling with high construction costs for rapid transit projects, but countries like South Korea and Spain can build subways for one-third of the price we pay. We could be the first to take their lessons seriously, and this scale enables us to sell that knowledge to our peers, creating a whole new export sector.

On the ground, Canadian public support for public transit also outmatches our stateside peers. Anecdotally, most Americans view buses as “for the poor.” This view is well justified in the U.S. since, if the most frequent bus comes every hour, most people with a choice would choose something else.

Conversely, Canadians come out to ride public transit in droves. Canadian ridership defies convention. Even though our suburbs are similar to the U.S., our buses are severely overcrowded, while our neighbours to the south are struggling to recover to pre-pandemic levels. To solve this enviable problem, Canadian cities like Brampton and Surrey have seen additional bus service to address demand, and they have proven that this higher frequency bus service will attract even more riders, creating a truly amazing positive feedback loop.

The key is that there’s a virtuous cycle between public transit and the political will for public transit. The prevalence of good public transit breeds familiarity among leadership and the general public. Having one will naturally grow the other, and Canada is already ahead on both fronts. In short, Canada is uniquely positioned to become a world leader in public transit.

Opportunities from growing our lead on public transit

Now, it’s great that our public transit advantage exists, but we must not sit on our laurels. On the contrary, we can capture many economic benefits for Canadian workers and families by expanding our public transit’s network and industry.

Public transit can drastically reduce household costs. Personally, my family spends $2,000 per month on our car, and since a monthly pass costs 10 times less, we always take public transit whenever possible. If good public transit is available in more areas of more cities, many two-car or three-car households can cut their expenses by downsizing to one car, and if necessary, join a car-sharing service to rent cars by the hour.

For a family facing layoffs and affected by business closures — particularly manufacturing plants — during this period of economic uncertainty, this significant relief in the cost of living could be the lifeline keeping their finances afloat.

What’s increasingly relevant, however, are the benefits public transit can bring to our national economic sovereignty. Every dollar spent on Canadian public transit goes to Canadian manufacturers, Canadian bus drivers, and ultimately stays in Canada. By contrast, large fractions of every dollar spent on cars end up in the hands of American car companies and American oil refineries.

In other words, when we invest in public transit, we’re also getting gainful employment for Canadians that’s diversified away from the whims of our southern neighbour. These jobs are insulated from trade-related layoffs, and they circulate money within the Canadian economy. Public transit can employ tens of thousands of plant workers, bus drivers, and mechanics, both in auto-sector cities and in cities with newly growing transit systems.

Buses and trains built by Canadian workers can both be used domestically and sold to international markets lucratively. Far from being a money pit of “job creation,” public transit investment creates a valuable and productive service that saves us money over and over again.

First new generation Mark V train cars being loaded onto flatbed trucks at the Alstom manufacturing plant in Kingston, Ontario in December 2023, for delivery to Metro Vancouver for TransLink’s SkyTrain system. (Alstom/C. Fleury)

Furthermore, we’re also insulating ourselves from our dependence on American gasoline and diesel.

Although Canada sells a lot of crude oil to the U.S., we buy much of it back refined since we lack the capacity to deliver and refine it ourselves.

Many have proposed an east-west pipeline to solve this issue, but I believe that public transit systems, which are inherently energy-efficient, can be spun up faster than a pipeline and also be synergistic with a pipeline in the long run. Naturally, to carry the same number of people, one bus uses much less diesel than the equivalent number of cars, and that’s not to mention trains or trolley buses powered by Canadian hydroelectricity. By reducing our demand, not only are we bolstering our energy independence, we’re also freeing up more capacity to sell oil overseas, benefiting Canada multiple times over.

While I can elaborate on specific measures we need to take to kickstart public transit, such as pooling bus orders to promote investor confidence or diversifying funding to enable long-term planning and growth, the important part is that we actually take action and start building.

Regardless, the benefits are clear: investing in public transit will save households money, employ tens of thousands of Canadians, insulate Canadian workers and Canadian energy needs from the American economy, and guarantee Canadian economic sovereignty. To put it simply, when we invest in public transit, we invest in Canada.

The new REM train system in Montreal. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Public transit: Canada’s crowning achievement

To outsiders, Canada may seem like a whimsical land of maple syrup and beaver tails, but we ought to be much more than that. For over 200 years, Canadians have defined ourselves in opposition to the U.S. Beyond that, we have a few points of pride, but each one was hard fought and dearly held.

When Tommy Douglas created universal healthcare in the wake of the Great Depression and the Second World War, it was new and untested, resources were always stretched tight, and the medical establishment hated it, but he persevered nonetheless. When he responded to a crisis, he laid the foundation for the prosperity of every future generation. Today, healthcare stands tall as Canada’s great crowning achievement. That is to say, the achievements we hold dear are forged in fire.

Today, we have another fire on our doorsteps, so it is time for another crowning achievement. Much as we take pride in healthcare, peacekeeping, and multiculturalism, Canadians should be able to take pride in our public transit as well.

Canada should be synonymous with fast and frequent public transit that is affordable to everyone, and that beats driving.

Canada should be a place where anyone can go anywhere as easily as they’d like.

Canadians take care of each other, and Canadians look forward to progress, but we have had notable lapses in acting on these Canadian values. In 1959, the Americans convinced Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to axe the Avro Arrow fighter jet, and thousands of Canadian engineers and aerospace workers were left to fend for themselves. Many went down to the U.S. and eventually wound up at NASA, where they helped America land a man on the moon. Most workers weren’t as lucky, and they gave up their lifelong dream career.

Some questioned our need for the Canadian-made fighter jet itself, but it’s undeniable that the workers at Avro Arrow took pride in their work and relied on the program to feed their families, and we undoubtedly failed its workers.

Sadly, history repeated itself in the 2000s when the government let Nortel go under. At one point, Nortel was the biggest company in Canada and the single biggest telecom company in the world. It grew to this size by being the first to invent a digital telephone switch and one of the first to use fibre optic technology. But, because of their questionable accounting practices, Nortel crashed and went bankrupt, which left the newly jobless employees without their hard-earned pensions.

Most damningly, instead of offering any kind of compensation or bailout, the federal government sat idly by and watched as Nortel sank and took down tens of thousands of hardworking, highly skilled engineers with it.

go train go rail expansion electrification

Map of GO Train’s expansion and electrification in Greater Toronto. (Metrolinx)

Now is our chance to redeem ourselves and be the best at something again. We have the skills and the innovative spirit, we just need to go for it.

Today, thousands of auto workers, especially those in Ontario, are out of work, and thousands more are struggling with their car payments, so it is high time for us to have their backs, all the while creating a fairer society and making the air cleaner. Right now, with an opportunity handed to us on a golden platter, we can either stand up for Canadians or sit back idly once again.

For too long, Canada has been tailgating America past every exit and off every cliff. Now is the time to pave our own way forward.

By investing in public transit built by Canadian workers for Canadian families, we can keep Canada moving ahead. The future of public transit is in our hands. The road ahead is bumpy and winding, but it’s time for us to be in the driver’s seat. To quote Vernon Marquez, the former president of Nortel, “I’m confident history will say that this is the best thing that ever happened to us.”

You might also like: