[Policy] Supporting Functional Transit to Help Prevent Freezing of Transit Subsidy - Carbon Pricing Coalition

[Mark Cohoe]

HI Everyone,

I hope your summers have been going well. Sorry for the cross posting, but
I thought it made sense for this issue.

As you may know, the provincial government is planning to end legislation
guaranteeing provincial funding for municipal transit agencies in Manitoba.
Essentially, the current legislation guarantees that the province will
match municipal funding for any subsidy of transit services (operating
expenses - revenue). This would obviously cause problems for the city as
they would have to choose to either reduce their subsidy, raise taxes to
cover the difference or shift funding from other projects/priorities to
make up the difference.

Functional Transit <http://functionaltransit.com/>, which lobbies for
improved transit service and changes to the way that the transit service is
run, has put together a letter writing campaign and is organizing like
minded groups to help push for the maintenance of the existing agreement.
I'm taking part in a meeting this Thursday, August 17th to discuss the
strategy.

I'm looking for advice/direction on three items:

1) Should we use our resources (Facebook, Newsletter) to promote the letter
writing campaign and subsequent planning? I certainly think we should.

2) I'd also like to join with them (and other like-minded organizations) to
develop a strategy around carbon pricing and planning on what to do with
the revenues generated from any carbon tax, with an emphasis on dedicating
monies raised to transit and AT (both capital and operating) Ultimately, I
think it probably makes sense to push towards partnering with the Manitoba
Carbon Pricing Coalition <https://www.facebook.com/mbcarbonpricing/> on
this, but I figure it's worth starting with Functional Transit to try and
develop some common goals before advancing to the bigger group.

3) From above, you can see that I think it makes sense for us to get
involved in the Manitoba Carbon Pricing Coalition. What do others think,
should I start the process?

In terms of the money that would be raised from the carbon tax, it`s huge.
Our provincial government's decision to stay out of the pan-Canadian carbon
pricing policy is currently holding up $66 million over 5 years, with a
very serious threat for that money to be shifted into a general fund
available to all provinces.  But even that is small potatoes compared with
the money that would be generated by a carbon tax.

Here is a partial list of expected carbon tax revenues in Manitoba. It
leaves out off-road transportation (think agriculture, mining, forestry) as
well as other agricultural emissions (mainly emitted through the use of
fertilizer, livestock and manure management) which may end up getting
exempted or at least dedicated back to their respective sectors.






2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Projected Revenues









On Road Transportation

Gasoline


33.28%

$34,962,982

$68,085,806

$99,368,474

$128,810,985

$156,413,339

Diesel


19.17%

$20,140,292

$39,220,569

$57,240,830

$74,201,076

$90,101,306

Off Road Transportation









Stationary Combustion










Residential


11.28%

$11,846,500

$22,446,000

$31,798,500

$39,904,000

$46,762,500

Commercial & Institutional


13.26%

$13,927,000

$26,388,000

$37,383,000

$46,912,000

$54,975,000

Manufacturing


11.13%

$11,694,500

$22,158,000

$31,390,500

$39,392,000

$46,162,500

Pipelines



2.33%

$2,451,000

$4,902,000

$7,353,000

$9,804,000

$12,255,000

Solid Waste



9.56%

$10,041,500

$19,026,000

$26,953,500

$33,824,000

$39,637,500

Total Revenues



100.00%

$105,063,774

$202,226,375

$291,487,804

$372,848,060

$446,307,145

Unlike the $66 million, the Federal Government has promised that any money
raised by the carbon tax will stay in the province it was raised in. The
catch is that unless the province joins in on the Pan-Canadian pricing
policy, the Federal government will decide how it is spent, not the
provincial government. That may be a good thing or a bad thing.

Cheers,
Mark
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