It’s official, Maple Ridge councillors is joining a national lobby for emergency transit funding.
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Council unanimously supports the request at Tuesday’s virtual council meeting, where they threw their support behind a request from the Canadian Urban Transit Association for $1.2 billion in funding, confirm Maple Ridge Mayor Michael Morden.
“After years of transit development to meet the needs of our fast-growing community – now at 90,000 people and home to one of eight regional town centres – these service cuts during a health emergency, when there’s more than enough stress, are devastating,” Morden said.
Further, he called on members of the community who are directly impacted by the recent COVID-19 driven transit cuts in Maple Ridge, to support the lobbying efforts by writing the prime minister, plus their local MPs and MLAs, advocating for the emergency relief funding.
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The pandemic is affecting public transit agencies right across Canada, putting in jeopardy their financial viability and future ability to operate, according to the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) – Canada’s largest public transport lobby with membership of most Canadian transit agencies.
CUTA is calling for “urgent” emergency funding to the tune of $400 million a month to keep services running – addressing not only the immediate drops in ridership and revenue across the board for buses and train, but money to help stabilize the services until they can be rebuilt again.
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