Infrastructure On The Move

Toronto, ON -- A new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of the Canadian Urban Transit Association reveals that, among Canadians who have access to public transit in their community, strong majorities express concerns about current funding to public transit infrastructure, and most are worried about what the future may hold for the transit systems in their communities.

In particular, when it comes to the current level of government commitment to public transit infrastructure:

• Six in ten (60%) say there is not enough support being provided to their community's transit infrastructure;
• Nearly three quarters (73%) believe the federal government is not doing enough to support local public transit infrastructure across the country.

And, when looking ahead to the future:

• A majority (61%) don't believe that there is enough support for public transit infrastructure to be able to keep up with the growth demands of their community; and
• Two-thirds (66%) do not feel confident that all three orders of government are working together for a long-term solution to our public transit infrastructure needs.
• When it comes to specific policy measures, 79% want to see the federal government do more than give tax credits for individual commuter fares in order to ensure that the overall needs of our public transit infrastructure are met.

The following are the results of an Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of the Canadian Urban Transit Association and fielded between October 26 and October 31, 2006. Interviews were conducted among a randomly selected national online sample of 1936 adult Canadians who have access to public transit in their community. The sample has been weighted to reflect the general population based on the most recent census. The margin of error for a sample of this size is +/- 2.8%, 19 times out of 20, of what they would be had this entire population been surveyed.

Sixty percent believe that there is not enough funding from various levels of government for public transit infrastructure to operate effectively in their community...

Four in 10 [40%] Canadians who have access to public transit believe that their transit system receives enough support from government, while six in 10 [60%] believe there is not enough support.

Sixty-one percent don't believe that there is enough support for public transit infrastructure to be able to keep up with the growth demands of their community

Seventy-three percent believe that the federal government is not doing enough to support public transit infrastructure ...

Seventy-three percent of Canadians with access to public transit believe that the federal government is not doing enough to support local public transit infrastructure, compared with only 27% who believe that the federal government is doing enough.

Eight in ten (79%) agree that the federal government must do much more than give tax credits to ensure needs of infrastructure are met...

Seventy-nine percent of Canadians agree the federal government needs to do much more than give tax credits for individual commuter fares in order to ensure that the overall needs of our public transit infrastructure are met, compared with 21% who disagree.

Seven in ten (68%) agree transit has not been made the priority it should be...

Sixty-eight percent agree with the statement that "I am deeply concerned that governments have not made public transit infrastructure the priority it needs to be" (21% strongly agree), versus 32% who disagree.

Many aren't confident that governments are working together for long term solutions to public transit infrastructure needs...

Only 34% of Canadians with access to public transit agree with the statement "I am confident that all three levels of government are working together for a long-term solution to our public transit infrastructure needs", and most (66%) disagree.

And when it comes to which order of government they believe should put more money into public transit infrastructure, it's all of the above...

Finally, when all respondents [2,615] were asked to choose one order of government that they think should be committing more of its resources than it is currently -- both in terms of direct funding and as a priority -- to public transit infrastructure, a plurality choose their provincial government [32%], followed by the federal government [28%] and their local municipal government [14%]. A full quarter of the sample [26%] says they "don't know".

One-third (33%) of Canadian adults -- 8,250,000 -- absolutely depend on transit infrastructure to do their life's essential activities on a day-to-day basis...

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900

For full tabular results, please visit our website at www.ipsos.ca. News Releases are available at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/