The Ontario government is providing the City of Sarnia with just over $1.15-million in funding this year under the provincial Gas Tax program.
The money can be used for things like extending service hours, buying transit vehicles, adding routes, improving accessibility or upgrading infrastructure.
Sarnia General Manager of Engineering and Operations David Jackson said the funding is based on ridership, and said the city's share will mostly be used to offset operating costs, and invest in capital upgrades.
"Our transit system does have many capital needs planned over the next 10 years," said Jackson. "Separately, we have received a large grant through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program that does provide us with significant funding over the next seven years to replace our fleet and do upgrades at our terminals and other systems at our garage facility as well."
Jackson notes transit ridership has dropped dramatically in recent months, after a strong start to 2020. That's largely due to Lambton College moving to online courses and the recent stay-at-home order.
He's hopeful the numbers will pick back up once the COVID vaccine is rolled out.
The Village of Point Edward is the only other local municipality receiving money, totalling $20,728.
Funding is determined by the number of litres of gasoline sold in the province during the previous year, and municipalities receive two cents per litre of collected revenue.
In all, Ontario's gas tax program is providing $375-million to help 109 municipalities.