Blaine Higgs Confirms That New Brunswick Chose Not To Receive Funding For Transit
In a Thursday release, Premier Blaine Higgs said that the province had reportedly opted out of the federal funding designed to bail out municipal transit systems affected by the Coronavirus pandemic before the details adhering to the agreement were finalized.
On the statement made by Higgs on Thursday, he admitted that the province had opted out of the transit category in the funding agreement because it was designed for large urban areas having significant transit infrastructure.
For the very first time, Higgs back-tracked previous claims that the funding was designed for capital infrastructure and not specifically for transit.
He further said that any transit finding requests if they may receive from their municipalities, they can be more than adequately covered under the $41 million Municipalities stream of that same agreement.
It was on July 16 when Ottawa had announced an $18.4 billion agreement to help the provincial governments recover from pandemic related shortfalls.
Higg’s statement read that the Safe Restart agreement had promised $260 million for New Brunswick that included funding to cover the costs related to testing, contact tracing, and also data management, health care system capacity, childcare for returning workers, vulnerable populations, and pan-Canadian sick leave that included the category for transit.
It was back in July when Higgs said that the federal transit money available under the agreement was only meant for the country’s larger provinces.
Additionally, Higgs had stated that the larger centers have done this agreement with the feds and that they have supported that, but it, however, did not apply to the smaller provinces and the smaller cities, he said that month, although all of this is not stated in a government backgrounder on the agreement.
Nova Scotia had qualified for the funding to help the communities recover from the COIVID-10 pandemic situation. According to a release from Premier Stephen McNeil’s office, a portion of the $250 million which it is getting from Ottawa will be going towards the public transit.
As per the federal government, the program is intended to address the operating deficits and the revenue shortfalls that have been caused due to the pandemic.
In July, Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold told Global News that the city was never consulted about the program.
Moreover, Arnold, alongside the Fredericton and Saint John mayors were told that $80 million shall be going to the municipalities.
Arnold had said that missing out on transit-specific cash would likely lead to harder decisions over what does and what doesn’t get funded to avoid cutting the transit service.
According to the statement made by Higg’s on Thursday, Moncton is projecting a $250000 transit deficit by the end of the year.
On the other hand, Fredericton is reportedly forecasting a $750000 deficit and Saint John is anywhere between $500000 and $1 million in transit budget shortfall, Higg’s confirmed.
He also said that the government is ensuring that the municipalities are being supported but the statement did not however include the details on plans for transit bailout.
As of now, Global News has reached out to the premier’s office but still has not received an immediate response.
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