Feds provide long-term funding for Sudbury’s transit service

In the past year in Greater Sudbury, there has been a significant increase in the number of people using its GOVA Transit system, with ridership reaching record highs.

To help the city with improvements and future planning, the federal government is providing $14 million over the next 10 years to support the system from the new Canada Public Transit Fund.

The federal government is providing $14 million over the next 10 years for GOVA Transit to support the system from the new Canada Public Transit Fund. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News)

The two local MPs announced the funding Thursday at the transit depot on Lorne Street, alongside Mayor Paul Lefebvre.

"So now the city can plan in knowing that it has stable long-term financing of $1.4 million every year for 10 years," said Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe.

"It allows them to make really good decisions on what their infrastructure needs are around the public transit system."

Nickel Belt MP Marc Serre said the funding will mean more transit services for outlying areas like Valley East, Capreol and Chelmsford.

"This will help to stabilize that service to make sure that we look at efficiencies and we make sure that we try and service the entire City of Greater Sudbury, not just the core downtown," Serre said.

Lefebvre said there 6.2 million riders used Gova Transit in 2024, an increase of one million compared with 2023.

"Over the summer we were seeing a steady increase (in) ridership and knew we had to respond accordingly,” said Laura Gilbert, acting director of transit services.

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"We went to council to request 11,000 additional hours into our service, and that was to reduce congestion on buses and improve frequency in certain areas which required it."

Part of the federal funding will help with capital infrastructure plans to modernize the fleet and meet the demand.

"Increasing a few more buses, as well," Lefebvre said.

"And as we electrify bus fleets, we need to put in the infrastructure to do that … But if we cannot do that if it's only short-term funding because the investment is very important, we need to have that reliability."

Gilbert was unable to say how many EV buses will be added to the Gova fleet. A report on electrification of transit fleet will be presented to city council in February.