The provincial government announced changes to the criteria for its GreenTRIP Incentives Program July 6, including allowing funding for capital projects like transit-stop upgrades and equipment refurbishments, as well as pilot projects.
According to Airdrie Transit Co-ordinator Chris MacIsaac, the changes mean Airdrie can apply for items he thought might have to wait on the back burner.
“The expanded scope has allowed us to look at a couple of other projects,” he said.
“It does give us a few opportunities to look at projects that otherwise would not be funded under GreenTRIP.”
One of those projects is the rehabilitation of a few of Airdrie Transit’s older buses, something MacIsaac said had originally been included in a federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund (PTIF) grant application.
“We’re going to try to leverage both grant funds (GreenTRIP and PTIF) for these capital funds,” he said.
Airdrie Transit originally planned to apply for just less than $5.6 million in GreenTRIP funding, but increased that amount to about $6 million as a result of the changes to the program criteria.
The PTIF program accepts applications to fund capital projects, and will fund up to 50 per cent of the total cost of projects. There is a total of $354,000 available to Airdrie.
“We’ve been able to offset some of those costs in PTIF over to GreenTRIP so it allowed us to open up a few more dollars on PTIF,” MacIsaac said. “We’re going to be looking at increasing the number of transit zones we had identified for refurbishment (or) replacement. (We’re looking at) putting concrete pads in to support the new Dynamic Transit zones that were approved in principle (July 4) by City council with the Transit Master Plan.”
Communities that may not have a transit stop could find themselves with one if Airdrie Transit’s PTIF funding application is approved, according to MacIsaac.
MacIsaac said the PTIF application also includes a request for funding to allow Airdrie Transit to conduct research into fares and revenues, as well as mobile ticketing.
With the first round of proposals due at the end of July, MacIsaac said staff is facing a challenge as they work quickly to prepare the funding applications.
“It’s an ever-evolving process and we’ve been trying to keep up with all the changes that have been happening,” he said. “We have an endorsement from council that they approved in late June.”
The Alberta government has committed investing $2 billion into the GreenTRIP program by 2020/21. This is the final time municipalities will be able to apply for GreenTRIP funding as the program winds down. Airdrie received $16.5 million in funding in 2015 as well as $2.78 million in 2012.
MacIsaac said he expects to hear back about what funding has been approved under both programs in the fall.
