Mr. Chair, locally the provinces are crying poor, too. They know what's about to come and it's pretty clear that the Deputy Prime Minister and her government are content to continue passing the buck while our municipalities are being forced to bear the brunt of this crisis.
As a case in point, public transit is a critical service used by essential workers to get to work and by Canadians to run essential errands, but municipalities are unable to absorb the increased transit operating costs that have arisen during COVID-19. The TTC alone is predicting a $300-million funding shortfall by Labour Day.
With the recent poll by Probe Research that indicates 91% of Canadians agree that the federal government has a responsibility to provide access to safe, reliable and affordable public transit, will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to providing emergency funding to backstop public transit during this COVID pandemic and commit to investing in a bold national public transit strategy by providing direct, sustainable and annual operational dollars towards public transit?