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relates to urban transit, although it has been funding particular transit investments from its recent infrastructure programmes. All provinces provide some form of capital funding for transit infrastructure, which include the purchase of new buses, but the formulas vary dramatically from province to province. Many U.S. transit systems are operated by separate regional and special authorities, but city governments are prevalent as well. As of 2009, public transit in the U.S. was provided by nearly 8,000 different organizations ranging from large multi-Â modal systems to single-vehicle service providers. As in Canada, the U.S. federal government provides some capital funding for transit infrastructure. Water and sanitation Provision of water and sanitation (referred to as sewer and wastewater systems) in the U.S. and Canada is primarily done through local governments. In the U.S., most provision is local, with federal and state governments playing a significant role in terms of regulation and, in part, funding. In Canada, authority for water systems is mostly province-based, but the delivery of most water services is done by local governments. The governance of water and sanitation systems in the U.S. and Canada often occurs through multi- and sub-jurisdictional special authorities and districts. Financing mechanisms include a mix of fare- and ratebased systems, local taxes, debt-financing (particularly for capital investments) and funding provided through province/state governments and the federal governments of the respective countries. Access to basic water and sanitation is not an issue for the overwhelming majority of people in the region.
other waste services happens at the local level, with some subsidies and regulations from the federal governments. Multi-jurisdictional collaboration and partnerships and the use of private sector providers are common in both countries. The full-scale contracting out of solid waste management services is particularly common among U.S. local governments. Several local governments in the region are increasingly experimenting with new waste-to-energy technologies and cradle-to-cradle approaches to solid waste management. Energy and broadband Although pivotal to local residents, energy (including electricity and natural gas) and broadband/telecommunications technologies, operate mostly outside the purview of local governments in North America. This is largely due to issues of scale, with the delivery of electricity and natural gas spanning continents or, in the case of broadband, much of the populated world. Issues of geographical scale, in fact, likely explain why the delivery of water-supply and sanitation systems is almost always a state/provincial-local responsibility in North America while electricity, natural gas, and broadband are typically addressed at the national level. In contrast to the other infrastructure categories, U.S. electricity, natural gas and broadband services are often provided by the private sector. Few local governments provide these services through publicly owned and operated enterprises. However, regardless of the provider, federal and state governments have significant regulatory authority in these sectors. Existing and emerging challenges
Solid waste management Solid waste management in North America is almost entirely the responsibility of local governments. In Canada and the U.S., the management of solid waste, recycling, and
North America’s complex federal systems are not the only challenges to the provision of basic local services. In both countries, scale and geography complicate all stages