Hard-working taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for buses they’ll never use.
That’s the bottom line to consider as politicians push proposals to eliminate transit fares and have taxpayers foot the bill.
Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Zach Churchill is the latest to jump on this bandwagon, promising “free” rides for everyone if he wins the next provincial election.
This echoes calls from other politicians and activists in places like Ottawa, Toronto, and even as far north as Yukon.
But once you take a closer look at these proposals, they just don’t make sense.
Take Churchill’s plan, for example.
It would hit provincial taxpayers with an extra $66-million bill while also taking from federal taxpayers through the Canada Public Transit Fund, which sends $3 billion a year to municipalities.
That’s a lot of money coming out of taxpayers’ pockets at a time when the provincial government, under Premier Tim Houston, is already running deficits. This includes an estimated $500-million deficit for 2024-25. With no plan to balance the budget, every penny used to pay for this project would be paid with borrowed funds.
If the provincial government keeps spending like this, it’s only a matter of time before taxes go up even more to pay future interest payments. This is at a time when Nova Scotians are already paying over $800 million annually to cover interest charges on the provincial debt and are among the most heavily taxed in the country.
The cost is even steeper when you factor in that only 25,300 Nova Scotians use transit services to commute daily. That means almost 98 per cent of taxpayers would be paying for a service they don’t need.
Churchill’s plan also banks on a 20 per cent increase in ridership, with the idea that fareless buses will magically convince people to ditch their cars, removing congestion on roadways and reducing carbon emissions.
But that hasn’t happened in other places that made taxpayers foot the bill for fare-free transit. Instead, the results were less than impressive.
In Santiago, Chile, for instance, a study showed that giving people “free” transit passes only led to a 12 per cent increase in trips, with no drop in car usage. Instead, the only thing that increased was the number of bus rides taken by people who used to walk.
The same thing happened in Talinn, Estonia, after they eliminated transportation fares in 2013. A report from their national auditor in 2021 found that car use didn’t go down. So much for reducing traffic and emissions.
Even if we could get more people onto buses, Churchill’s plan still doesn’t account for the fact that a huge chunk of Nova Scotians live outside the areas served by the major bus systems. Perhaps Halifax Transit might see some extra riders, but what about the over one-third of Nova Scotians who don’t have access to reliable daily bus service? Folks in Truro shouldn’t be paying for something they can’t use.
And let’s be honest: taking a bus every day just doesn’t fit into the lives of many Nova Scotians. Are we really expecting a carpenter to lug all their tools onto a bus at the crack of dawn? Or a mom to squeeze four kids onto a crowded bus during rush hour on the way to soccer practice?
This is why these taxpayer-funded transit proposals always sound better in theory than they work in practice. They’re great for grabbing headlines and scoring political points, but when it comes to actually improving life for taxpayers, they fall flat.
Instead of throwing millions at a “free” transit scheme that benefits a small fraction of the population, Churchill should understand that the provincial government should be focusing on balancing the budget, cutting taxes and making life more affordable for everyone in Nova Scotia.
We need leaders who understand that every dollar spent comes from the pockets of taxpayers. So let’s keep more money where it belongs—in the hands of the people who earn it—not wasted on a bus system most Nova Scotians will never use.
Devin Drover is the Atlantic Director and General Counsel for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He resides in St. John’s, NL, and holds a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration from Dalhousie University, and a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.
