Leveling of registration fees and fuel tax, “bonus-malus” system for the purchase of electric vehicles, kilometer pricing, road tolls: the Alliance for the financing of collective transport in Quebec (TRANSIT ) presented Thursday its solutions to better finance public transport.
In its report “New momentum on the financing of mobility”, published Thursday at the time when the consultations of the Minister Geneviève Guilbault begin in the middle, the Alliance proposes first to level the registration fees financing public transit, the amount of $30 not having been indexed since its creation in 1992.
“In 2021-2022, this contribution brought in 89.7 million. If it had kept pace with inflation, this contribution would have instead brought in an amount of 150 million. Indexing this contribution to inflation alone would result in additional revenue of over $60 million,” the report read.
It also urges Quebec to “update” the level of fuel taxes, insists the organization, pointing out that between 2010 and 2013, this tax was only increased by a penny per year. “There has been no further adjustment since, despite inflation and increased infrastructure spending,” he said. According to the Alliance, if the fuel tax had kept up with inflation as early as 2013, it would have now brought in more than 273 million.
Ultimately, it will also be necessary to “rebalance investments in the road network and that of transport”, maintains for his part the coordinator of the Alliance, Samuel Pagé-Plouffe. Over the next decade, investments in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) will be in the order of $31.5 billion in the road network, compared to $13.8 billion in public transit, which is still roughly equivalent to a ratio 70%-30%. “What we are proposing are alternatives that seem to us in the short term to be very favorable. They have to be considered,” insists Mr. Pagé-Plouffe.
In the manner of a “bonus-malus” system, the government is also proposed to finance the purchase of electric vehicles “from the contributions to the purchase of a polluting vehicle”, which would make it possible to “free up sums of the carbon market” to finance public transit. “A fee-rebate could have better results on purchasing behavior if the fee costs were high enough,” it says.
Another avenue would be to extend the tax on non-residential parking, which is currently only a reality in Montreal. Across Quebec, an annual tax equivalent to approximately $125 per year, or 50 cents per business day, would generate revenue of $375 million annually, according to the Alliance. This takes into account “the approximately three million institutional and commercial parking spaces” in Quebec.
In the long term, the group also proposes to study the idea of kilometer pricing, a project which is currently under study by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM). Multiplying road tolls to “depreciate network-affiliated expenses” and thus “generate revenue for public transport” could also be beneficial in the future, argues the Alliance.
Finally, it supports the idea of a “corporate payroll tax”, already in force in France, particularly in Paris. This sum, drawn from the payroll of companies with more than 10 employees, makes it possible to reinject billions of euros into the expansion and operation of the Paris metro and bus networks. “It depends how you bring it up, but I say it’s a constructive contribution. It deserves to be watched, ”Ms. Guilbault argued in early March.
