PUBLIC FINANCING
Appendix Table 4: Select National Emergency Funding Packages for Local Public Transport (as of November 2020) TIME-
ALLOCATION & DISTRIBUTION
COUNTRY
PACKAGE
AMOUNT*
RECIPIENTS
United States
Cares Act (April)
USD 25 billion
transit agencies** nationally, sub-allocated to contracting operators
No time limit set, but predicted to last 5.4 to 8.3 months for large transit agencies and 12.6 to 20.8 months for small agencies
Subject to the conditions for normal federal public transit funding (reporting requirements are less stringent); in particular, prevailing wage for federally funded construction, alteration and repair and Federal Transit Act Section 13(c) labour protections1 cannot be waived (i.e. apply)
Allocated based on formulas for ordinary federal grant programs, covering up to 100% of operating costs; distributed to ‘designated recipients’ in census-defined urbanised areas (transit agencies or State Depts. of Transport) and then reallocated to agencies and contracting operators in the area
Canada
Safe Restart Agreement (July)
CAD2.3 billion for public transit
transit agencies nationally, sub-allocated to contracting operators
Municipal funds expected to cover 6 to 8 months of shortfalls; transit allocations in some provinces going into 2021
Provinces must provide a matching grant in order to be able to access federal funding;
Allocated based on transit ridership; provinces and territories must submit a letter outlining plans for matching grants and how funds will be used; funds are transferred to municipalities (and transit agencies) through provinces
CAD2 billion for municipalities may also be used for transit
FRAME
CONDITIONS
Ontario has conditioned 2021 round of funding on evaluation of ‘low-performing’ bus routes for replacement with microtransit (private on-call vans or minibuses)
OTHER
1 United States Federal Transit Act Section 13(c) protective arrangements include, without being limited to, such provisions as may be necessary for (1) the preservation of rights, privileges, and benefits (including continuation of pension rights and benefits) under existing collective bargaining agreements or otherwise; (2) the continuation of collective bargaining rights; (3) the protection of individual employees against a worsening of their positions with respect to their employment; (4) assurances of employment to employees of acquired mass transportation systems and priority of reemployment of employees terminated or laid off; and (5) paid training or retraining programs. Transit Cooperative Research Program, Legal Research Digest, June 1995, No. 4.
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