Transit-fare increase coming off the rails

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This article was published 08/03/2012 (5202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Transit’s proposed fare hike looks even less likely to proceed after the latest exchange between Mayor Sam Katz and the NDP government.

Council voted in November to raise transit fares by 20 cents this June to raise $3.56 million this year toward the completion of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor. Most city councillors are poised to rescind that decision.

However, Katz said Wednesday a vote would not even be necessary to kill the hike if the Selinger government confirms, in writing, it will not allow the city to devote all the proceeds from the hike to rapid transit. A city-provincial transit-funding agreement allows the province to make such a move.

“If they do that, then obviously that means it doesn’t move forward,” said Katz, pointing out a clause in the original council vote.

Premier Greg Selinger’s office, which has called the fare hike unfair, pledged to send such a letter to Katz’s office. A spokesman for Selinger said the letter was sent Wednesday.

This means the hike might die before a March 20 council vote on the 2012 operating budget, which includes Winnipeg Transit’s spending plans.

The death of the fare hike would not settle the broader question of how the city will fund the completion of the southwest corridor. It will cost $270 million to build a busway for the second phase of the corridor. The cost of upgrading both phases of the corridor to light rail would be $700 million.

The first phase of the corridor, a 3.6-kilometre busway from Queen Elizabeth Way at The Forks to Jubilee Avenue at Pembina Highway, is slated to open April 8. It cost $138 million, with the federal government covering $28 million and the city and province splitting the remaining $110-million tab.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca