Winnipeggers favor federal bailout for transit
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2020 (2209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — A majority of Winnipeggers say public transit needs a federal bailout to get through COVID-19, even if they’re less likely than other Canadians to describe bus service as critical.
In a national poll by Probe Research, some 71 per cent of Winnipeggers said transit is “a critical service,” compared with 77 per cent of residents in 10 other major cities.
And while 91 per cent of Canadians say people working essential jobs during the pandemic need public-transit access, 87 per cent of Winnipeggers feel the same.
The Amalgamated Transit Union commissioned the polling and shared the results with the Free Press.
Of the dozen cities polled, Winnipeg residents tied with Edmonton as most likely to say their transit system is underfunded; 45 per cent of respondents felt that way, compared with an average of 36 per cent across Canada.
The ATU will make the results public Tuesday morning. The union argues that Ottawa should give transit systems $5 billion to make up for lost fare revenue.
The poll found four-fifths of respondents support such a move, both in Winnipeg and across the 12 cities.
Probe Researched surveyed 1,501 Canadians online between May 1 and 6, including 100 Winnipeggers.
While online polls do not have margins of errors, Probe says such a sample size would have an MOE of 2.8 percentage points nationally, and 9.8 points for the Winnipeg respondents.
Last month, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities asked the Trudeau government to give cities $10 billion to maintain essential services, because of a drop in revenue from things like transit fares and parking fees.
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Transit union poll on support for COVID-19 bailout
