Although the Provincial government doesn’t much care for carbon taxes, they’re still sharing the wealth when it comes to revenue from the gas tax, and Guelph Transit will again be a beneficiary of the program to the tune of $3 million.

For 2018/2019, Guelph’s share of the gas tax revenue is actually $3,087,549 to be precise.

The Royal City is one of 107 Ontario municipalities that, all told, offer transit services to 144 communities, and will split $364 million in revenue from gas taxes this fiscal year. Toronto gets about half of that with nearly $185 million being reinvested into that City’s transit systems.

“We are investing in public transit to make it a more convenient travel option and to attract more riders,” said Minister of Transportation Jeff Yurek in a statement. “More public transit will cut through gridlock and get people moving.”

Funding for Ontario’s gas tax program is determined by the number of litres of gasoline sold in the province  with two cents per litre of provincial gas tax revenues being set aside for the program. From there, a formula based 70 per cent on ridership and 30 per cent on population is used to determine the amount each municipality should receive.

In terms of year-over-year difference, Guelph received about $100,000 more from the revenue sharing this year over 2017/2018 when Guelph got just $2,904,236. The revenue can be spent on upgrading transit infrastructure, increasing accessibility, purchasing transit vehicles, adding more routes or extending hours of service as the transit operator sees fit.