The 2025 Federal Budget has transferred a $5 billion funding allocation from the Canada Public Transit Fund (CPTF) to the Building Communities Strong Fund (BCSF). The CPTF previously committed to dedicate $3 billion annually for ten years towards public transit, now reduced to $2.5 billion.

After the announcement of the 2025 budget, it was unclear how much money from the CPTF would be transferred to the BCSF. The amount cut from CPTF funding was confirmed in early February to be $5 billion total. 

The BCSF allocates $51 billion in funding over ten years to revitalize local infrastructure, including hospitals, universities and colleges, water and wastewater facilities and public transit. Its raison d’être is to “spur economic activity, create new careers in the skilled trades, and give investors the confidence to build around reliable public infrastructure.”

Some of the BCSF’s $51 billion of funding could be invested into public transit, but is not specifically dedicated to this. 

UNIFOR, Canada’s largest private-sector union, denounced the government’s decision, accusing it of greatly reducing the amount of predictable funding for public transit. Transit projects that require usage of BCSF money will have to compete with other infrastructure projects. UNIFOR adds that “downloading transit costs onto municipalities forces impossible choices, including cutting service, or raising fares and property taxes. All these options trickle down and hit working people hardest.”These concerns were echoed by CUTA, who stated that predictable federal funding is a requirement for maintaining and sustaining public transit service. 

Environmental Defence, a Canadian environmental organization, concurred with the economic drawbacks, and pointed to additional environmental concerns, stating that “public transit is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions while connecting people to jobs, schools, and housing… At a time when governments say they want to tackle the affordability and climate crises, cutting transit funding does the exact opposite.”