The Canadian Urban Transit Association clearly said that $40 billion needs to be invested between 2008 and 2012 in public transit infrastructures. But the current programs count only $20 billion. So there is a shortfall of $20 billion. We need to come up with a strategy to make up for this shortfall because the current challenge is not just to reduce congestion, to maintain—and perhaps increase—current service and have a very high ridership; we also need a longer term vision.
According to the OECD, Canada is the only industrialized country that does not have a national public transit strategy, which is why the Montreal city council, with members from three different parties, unanimously adopted Vision 2040. We aren't telling the government what to do and we aren't promoting the private bill that Ms. Chow just introduced in the House of Commons. We are simply inviting the government to focus on the need for a national fund, for long-term, foreseeable, indexed funding, that will support fixed assets.
I spoke earlier about the $11 billion we need at the STM. Our strategic plan is ambitious.
I don't know if you speak English, Mr. Mai, but I'll say this in English for everybody's benefit.
We are rivaling the 1940s in terms of our ridership. We're almost breaking the level in 1949, which I think was our best year. We're at 390 million riders a year, but our strategic plan calls for 540 million in 2020. We can do it if we have predictable sources of funding for the long term. That's why we're making these three recommendations today.