Brampton is set to receive more than $11 million in funding from the Ontario government to help fuel transit system expansion.

In an announcement on Tuesday (Dec. 19) at the city’s transit facility on Sandalwood Parkway, Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca announced the provincial funding breakdown. He was joined by mayor of Brampton Linda Jeffery and Harinder Malhi, the MPP for Brampton-Springdale.

The funding is up from the $10 million Brampton received for the 2016-2017 year.

Brampton is among 105 municipal transit systems servicing 142 communities the Ontario government is supporting across the province with the Gas Tax Fund. First started in 2004, the fund has been working toward providing $3.7 billion to municipalities in Ontario to finance various transit projects that will ease congestion and lower air pollution. This year a total of $357 million was given in funding in Ontario. This is expected to grow to $642 million by 2021-2022.

“Brampton Transit is growing quickly and we have experienced extremely high ridership growth,” said Jeffery in a media release. Jeffery went onto say that an increase in demand in the city has made this investment into the transit system a necessity.

Brampton’s rapidly growing population has been a part of the demand increase Jeffrey spoke of.

In Canada’s latest census, it was revealed that Brampton’s population grew 13.3 per cent to 593,638 in 2016 from the 2011 census results that recorded the population at 523,906.

In previous years, Brampton used the funding to purchase new buses, improve service on existing lines and help fund the Brampton Rapid Transit service on Steeles Avenue.

The new funding will be focused on improving the existing transit system in Brampton after a council vote in 2015 shot down plans to extend the proposed Hurontario LRT through city’s downtown area. This time around, the funding could mean more new buses, longer hours of service and more routes in Brampton.

Mississauga will also be receiving funding for public transit in the amount of $18 million, which is up from the $16 million that was released for the 2016-2017 year.