We’re in a transit culture now. Or at least that’s what Peter Smith, chair of GO Transit (greater Toronto’s commuter rail) said last week. Though living in Edmonton, the most car-dependent city in Canada, it’s easy to be skeptical.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates that nationwide, the infrastructure deficit for transit alone is sitting at about $23 billion. That’s a lot of catching up to do.

So what are other cities doing to address their aging and overloaded transit systems?
Metropolitan Toronto is planning to invest $50 billion into its transit system to make up for years of no spending, and to deal with the city’s soaring growth.

In British Columbia, the provincial government is poised to spend $14 billion on improving transit as part of a strategy to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2012.
What does Edmonton get? Comparatively, not much. The provincial government has committed a measly $2 billion to transit projects in Alberta.

If Alberta was matching B.C.’s plan, we would see a further $12 billion commitment to public transit, more than enough to pay for Edmonton’s long overdue LRT expansions and still have some money left for other service improvements.

Sadly though, the provincial government continues to only throw down a token sum of money every now and again to placate us, rather than making any significant investments for transit and sustainability.

This is ironic, given Alberta’s recent economic boom; you would think we’d want to make these investments while we have the money.

So what will it take to get ETS on par with transit in other cities?

The city has taken some bold and positive steps with regard to increasing the frequency and duration of service, as well as developing plans to extend LRT lines to all corners of the city — plans like this are what higher levels of government like to see when they allocate funding.

But average citizens can help, too, by writing or calling their MLAs and MPs and demanding better for Edmonton — after all, if we don’t speak up, we can’t expect to be heard.