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Canadians would purchase fewer vehicles as the necessity to drive decreases, so demand for cars from foreign-owned companies such as Lexus, Ford, and General Motors will be replaced by demand for buses from entirely Canadian companies such as Bombardier and New Flyer. Therefore more money from consumers would stay within the country, and transportation would become less sensitive to international markets and events.

Also, demand for jobs in the maintenance of vehicles such as tire shops, garages and oil change shops will shift to servicing buses. Any loss of jobs in the field will be replaced by skilled, outsource-proof jobs in operating the increased transit system. Even with the loss of vehicle jobs, the overall unemployment rate should not be affected in any negative way.

If a universally free transit system is established and used, it will provide a great increase in the number of people that can travel on a given road at a time. Therefore the maintenance and upgrading costs of road infrastructure per capita will be dramatically reduced because each individual person requires a smaller portion of the road.

Those who take the free transit would find themselves with 30-60 minutes of each day freed up from paying attention to the road. This time that would usually be spent commuting could be instead spent reading, watching videos on portable video players, napping, socializing or just relaxing. Transit users today already take advantage of this time similarly. To most Canadians, these are more productive and more enjoyable activities than driving.

Those who continue to drive would at least benefit from sharing the road with fewer motorists and much greater proportion of professionally trained and accountable drivers from the reduced number of cars and increased proportion of buses and streetcars. Parking in major cities will also cease to be a problem. With fewer than half as many cars taking up premium space in the downtowns of the nation, there would likely be surplus of parking spots which could be replaced by businesses or parks and greenery.

The lessened demand for cars also decreases the demand for steel. This either frees up the steel for construction or export, or allows the closure of steel mills and iron and coal mines that both pollute the air and damage the environment on the ground. Again, the steel industry jobs would be replaced by skilled driving jobs.

The majority of transit in Canada today is in the form of diesel-powered buses because they are best suited for the low volume of riders today. However, as ridership increases, greener high volume mass transit systems such as railways and electric streetcars become viable in more cities. Finally, with a majority of commuters taking transit, communities would slowly develop to become more tied to central transit hubs, so urban sprawl would be reduce and less land would be needed per capita.

Mandating that the public transit systems of Canada were free for everyone to ride on is one of the most effective ways to make Canada more sustainable. Universally free transit provides dramatic improvements to Canada's environmental impact, and is
beneficial to both the national economy and individual Canadians. Furthermore, the next two years are the perfect time to implement such a policy while both oil use and Canada are major players in the world stage and while the economy is still hot. Universally free transit should be considered in the House of Commons immediately.

Works Cited

"Fuel Consumption Calculator: Gasoline". Energy Publications. 2006. Natural
Resources Canada. 4 Jan 2008. .

"Sales of fuel used for road motor vehicles, by province and territory". 2007. Statistics Canada. 4 Jan 2008. .

Learn more about this author, Jack Davis.
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