Bus and save, Tories promise; Harper proposes tax breaks for public transit users
Publication: The Chronicle-Herald
Section: Canada
Page: A4
Byline: Kevin Ward
**Excerpt**
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper did what he admitted was a rarity for him Thursday - jumping off a city bus as he announced his plan to give transit riders a tax break.
Under Harper's proposal, the average Canadian transit user would save $153 a year, an amount that Harper believes is enough to ease traffic congestion and pollution by moving people from their cars and onto buses, subway cars and commuter trains.
"This is a real incentive that will encourage more people to take public transit, meaning fewer cars on the road and cleaner air," said Harper, who got off the No. 10 Hastings bus followed by a group of Vancouver-area Tory candidates before a news conference at a downtown hotel.
Harper couldn't say how many commuters would be encouraged onto public transit as a result of his tax proposal, but said studies have shown this type of tax credit would increase ridership by 25 per cent to 50 per cent over an unspecified period of time.
"It will be a big increase over time," he added. "Remember, it is competing with... a number of companies and employers that offer incentives for parking, but it will nevertheless have a significant impact."
The tax credits would cost the federal government about $400 million each year, the party said.
Harper's plan would allow holders of monthly transit passes to claim the 16 per cent tax credit. Parents would also be able to claim the credit on behalf of dependent children.
"The idea here is to get people to shift to regular transit usage, particularly for transport to-and-from work or to-and-from education," said Harper, who acknowledged he hasn't taken public transit to work since he was a private citizen years ago in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.
David Jeanes, president of Transport 2000 Canada, a non-profit advocacy group on transportation issues, congratulated Martin and NDP Leader Jack Layton for talking about public transit during the campaign for the Jan. 23 federal election.
"Transit seems to be becoming a bandwagon that the political parties are getting onto," he said in an interview from Ottawa.
Tax incentives generally have an impact on ridership, Jeanes said.
"The tax incentives for public transit do have a benefit," he said. "That's partly because people make direct comparisons between the cost of a transit pass and the cost of gasoline for their car."
Jeanes noted that as transit fares have increased in Canadian cities, ridership has dropped.
"If there's a reduction through a tax credit, that could reverse that trend," he said.
But just how large an impact the average $3 savings riders would get each week from the Tories is difficult to predict, said Jeanes.
"For some people that won't be significant, for others it will help," he said, adding that transit passes cost at least $70 a month in most Canadian cities.
The other half of the equation, said Jeanes, is spending more on transit infrastructure and vehicles.
"You need to provide the capacity as well as provide it at an attractive price," he said.
Harper said the Conservatives plan to make an announcement on transit infrastructure later in the campaign.
"We understand there is going to have to be additional investment in transit infrastructure as well," he said.
Jeanes also said unless a substantial number of people are moved to public transportation, Canada won't be able to meet its objectives under the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.
Harper slammed the Liberals on the Kyoto protocol, which includes a policy of buying emission "credits" abroad.
"They think it's a good policy to send our tax dollars overseas, to buy credits allowing Canada to increase greenhouse gas emissions. We know it's folly," he said.
"Buying pollution credits from countries such as Russia will do nothing for the environment in either country. Instead of sending our tax dollars overseas, we'll use them right here to provide incentives."
