Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today as part of the pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2018 budget. My name is Patrick Leclerc, and I am the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, commonly known as CUTA.
CUTA is the influential voice of public transportation in Canada. We are the national association representing public transit systems, manufacturers and suppliers, government agencies, research organizations and related organizations in Canada.
I would first like to thank the government and parliamentarians, including the members of this committee, for their unfailing and unprecedented support of public transit. The benefits of increased investments in public transit across the country are already being felt. The transit systems turn investments into concrete projects. They help to make our communities more prosperous, greener and fairer, but above all they help to improve the quality of life of Canadians.
The public transit infrastructure fund, PTIF, has provided short-term funding of up to $3.4 billion to support the rehabilitation and modernization of transit systems. Many commitments have already been made under the first phase of PTIF. While most projects will be completed within the prescribed time frame, the time needed to conclude bilateral negotiations and approve project lists, the complexity of transit infrastructure projects, the procurement process, and the limited construction seasons have created some delays. Unfortunately, some projects will not be completed by the required deadline of March 31, 2019. Therefore, CUTA is urging the government to confirm that all funds committed to communities under the first phase of the public transit infrastructure fund remain earmarked to transit with the same funding conditions and criteria after the March 2019 deadline for project completion.
Once the first phase of the public transit infrastructure fund is completed, the federal government will invest more than $20 billion in public transit over 12 years. These investments must be based on reliable industry data so that we can objectively evaluate and measure the impact of government investments.
CUTA is internationally recognized for its leadership, experience and expertise in the collection and analysis of data related to the Canadian public transit industry. Indeed, we have been conducting the largest public transit data collection program in Canada for decades. We collect more than 1,300 unique pieces of data annually for each CUTA transit network member, representing approximately 98% of ridership nationwide.
Given the need for evidence-based decision-making and CUTA'S experience and expertise in leading the most important national transit data program, we recommend that the government both partner with us in establishing comprehensive performance metrics and mandate CUTA to track, analyze, and report to the government, in a harmonized way, on the industry's progress and outcomes of transit investments.
We're also following closely the creation of a climate change strategy. One of the most effective ways to reduce emissions from passenger transport is to measure transit's direct and indirect contribution to reducing GHG emissions through modal shift, the reduction of traffic congestion, and densification. We're recommending that the government clearly identify modal shift from single-occupancy vehicles toward sustainable mobility options—walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, and car sharing, just to name a few—as a key objective and performance metric of federal transit investment to reduce GHG emissions.
Finally, Mr. Chair, the Canadian transit manufacturing sector is a remarkable success story. Our bus and rail manufacturers and their suppliers lead the North American transit market. The Canadian transit industry supports nearly 75,000 high-quality, good-paying jobs. However, it's with great concern that the industry has seen the implementation of an increase in the Buy America requirement for transit procurement in the United States. We believe the government must leverage the current trade discussions with the U.S. to ensure that Canada's transit industry has fair access to U.S. market, especially at a time when the Canadian government is making record investment in transit. It's critical that we treat our transit manufacturing industry as a strategic sector to defend, protect, and promote.
The Government of Canada should therefore seek fairer access to Canadian companies in U.S. public transit procurement by requiring that Canadian components receive national treatment in the calculation of the Buy America requirement.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.