This brings us to the essential element of the bill before you today: the establishment of the public transit capital trust and the investment of $500 million. This is an extraordinarily important investment and is part of what leads to the optimism about public transit that we referred to earlier.
The public supports investment in transit. This funding will make a real difference to allowing transit systems across Canada to meet the growing demand and growing expectations. The investment is good for the environment, the economy, and healthy living.
That said, many pundits, politicians, and the media have raised the issue as to whether or not this is enough to meet the needs of Canadians and the needs of public transit. This is an important question, but in a sense it's less important than the question of how can we move forward to build world-class transit infrastructure and service in Canada? How can we do better?
Clearly cash injections are positive, but they have severe limitations. They're unplanned, and in an industry that requires long-term planning for capital projects, that poses problems. Regional considerations are also much more difficult to manage with a one-time spending process. So while the investments made in this bill provide real value, there's a better way for future spending.
Canada remains the only G-8 country without a national policy of long-term, predictable, dedicated trends in investment. This prevents Canadian transit systems from achieving their full potential. Together with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, CUTA is urging the implementation of a national transit strategy.
The proposed strategy has five elements: dedicated federal investment to maintain, renew, and expand transit services across the country; federal tax incentives for individuals who choose transit, such as an income tax exemption for employer-provided transit benefits; support for research to enable innovation and make transit operations more effective and more efficient; a requirement for recipient communities to approve integrated land use and transportation plans that make transit the primary means of serving future growth and travel demand; and finally, intergovernmental cooperation to ensure that accountability measures are in place.