Funding public transit is smart climate policy

The ongoing difficulties arising from Winnipeg Transit’s network redesign has further spotlighted the urgent need for increased government funding to public transit operations in Manitoba, including urban, rural and northern systems.

As Mel Marginet, Adam Johnston, Tom Brodbeck and the editorial board have written in the Free Press in recent months, the lack of additional operating funding — which covers the day-to-day costs of transit — has severely undermined the effectiveness and public reception of Winnipeg’s new system. Local political commentator (and former Calgary city councillor) Brian Pincott recently described this dynamic well on his blog: “Buses not running frequently enough, bus service ending too early, buses being full … all these things are about service, not network.”

Significantly increased operating funding isn’t the only answer to this problem — more dedicated bus lanes are also an essential piece, for example — but it’s impossible to build a reliable, frequent and affordable transit system without it. While Winnipeg would be the major beneficiary of increased government funding due to the sheer size of its system, many other municipalities throughout the province including Brandon, Steinbach and Thompson require dedicated support to either provide or expand transit service.

There are many obvious reasons for governments to properly fund transit: improving access to jobs, groceries, appointments and recreation for people who can’t or don’t want to drive; reducing the cost of living for households currently forced to spend thousands of dollars a year on vehicle ownership; and enabling denser land-use planning focused on housing people, not parked cars.

But funding transit is also an essential climate policy. Despite full-throated climate denialism from the U.S. and other major powers, Manitoba and Canada still must do their parts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and limit catastrophic global heating. Road passenger transportation is the second-largest emission source in Manitoba, responsible for 3.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023. (Most of this pollution now comes from SUVs and pickup trucks, cancelling out decades of fuel-efficiency improvements in smaller vehicles.)

While personal electric vehicles are technological marvels which are far preferable to burning gasoline or diesel for mobility, they entrench many existing inefficiencies and inequalities of individualized transportation systems. Rather than banking on a gradual replacement of the province’s vehicle fleet over several decades, the best use of public resources is to incentivize people to get out of personal vehicles and onto buses and into active transportation.

This goal has been repeatedly highlighted in municipal and provincial planning, including in the City of Winnipeg’s 2018 Climate Action Plan, the Transportation Master Plan adopted by the city in 2025 and the province of Manitoba’s recent Path to Net Zero.

To be sure, buses can be horribly inefficient when only carrying a few riders, especially when having to constantly start and stop (an issue the new network is designed to address). But they can transport many more passengers than private automobiles, which are typically operated with only one or two people. When in use during peak hours, carrying 40 or more riders, a standard diesel bus emits only one-quarter the per-passenger emissions of a car and less than one-fifth of a pickup truck.

In fact, a 12-metre-long bus only needs to carry 11 riders to out-compete a private automobile on emissions grounds. Buses are also far more spatially efficient, reducing congestion and idling.

This makes increasing transit ridership the most effective way to reduce emissions from passenger transportation, even if the buses run on diesel. Electrifying transit vehicles, which Manitoba is especially well-placed to do given New Flyer’s local operations, makes this case even stronger. Unlike subsidizing private EV purchases, this transition to electric buses can be guaranteed with public procurement.

But it’s not enough for governments to just help transit agencies buy electric vehicles; they need to provide increased dedicated operating funding to run more buses and improve service to the point people can leave their vehicles at home. Failing to do so will continue to let transit slip into a vicious cycle of lower fare revenue, leading to service cuts, forcing even more people to drive or skip trips altogether.

The City of Winnipeg has long prided itself on spending as little money on transit as possible, even bragging in its annual budget about lower per-rider costs than other major Canadian cities with extensive rail systems. Within this context, it’s understandable that the provincial government may be reluctant to step into the gap, especially if there’s a risk of a municipality clawing back its own funding.

This risk is why the province should move to revive its 50-50 funding arrangement with municipalities — ended by the PCs in 2017 — for all additional spending on transit operations above 2025 levels, including new transit systems. While in opposition, the Manitoba NDP regularly called on the PCs to restore 50-50 transit funding, but have neglected this issue since forming government. It should also consider establishing a Crown corporation like BC Transit or the former Saskatchewan Transportation Company to provide high-quality inter-community, rural and northern transit service.

This public funding would greatly expand access to employment, health care and education throughout the province, and create more good transit jobs. It would also help put a sizable dent in Manitoba’s passenger transportation emissions, one of the biggest sources of the province’s contribution to global heating. Strong climate action requires much better public transit.

James Wilt is policy development manager at Climate Action Team Manitoba.