Burlington Transit in line for $1.5 million of COVID-19 related funding

Burlington Transit will be on the receiving end of about $1.5M of the half-billion the federal and provincial governments are providing in the Safe Restart Agreement.

The Ontario government is providing municipalities with up to $505 million to help ensure municipal transit systems can continue to deliver safe and reliable transit services.

The funding is being delivered through Phase 4 of the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.

“As we continue to build Ontario, our government is stepping up and investing historic amounts in municipalities, including public transit,” said Premier Doug Ford. “This additional funding will help deliver safe and reliable public transit for local communities both now and into the future.”

Phase 4 of the Safe Restart Agreement will help municipal transit systems address costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic this year. Municipalities will be able to use their funding allocations to cover revenue losses, operating expenses, and provincial transit priority projects, including fare and service integration and On-Demand transit.

“This is great news,” said Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.

“We’re still feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Burlington Transit and our transit operating systems, so this additional Safe Restart funding from the provincial and federal governments will go a long way.”

This funding builds on the more than $2 billion in dedicated funding for municipal transit systems that the Ontario government, in conjunction with the federal government, has provided since 2020 to help transit systems across the province respond to the impact of COVID-19.

“Our government will always be there for Canadians. Throughout the pandemic, countless essential workers relied on public transit to get to work and this funding will help ensure transit operators can continue to offer them and their communities a reliable service,” said Jennifer O’Connell, Parliamentary Secretary to the minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities.