seniors, students line up to give transit commission an earful about fare increases
as oc transpo faces a $120-million shortfall, the city's draft budget proposes increasing the cost of the seniors' monthly bus pass to $108 from the current $49.
6 minute read
the 120 per cent monthly buss pass increase blindsided seniors and other groups, including youth and post-secondary students, who also face new or increased fares.
jean levac
/
postedia
a motion to reduce proposed oc transpo fare increases for seniors will be moving forward to city council. oc transpo is facing a $120-million shortfall. one of the measures to increase revenue in the 2025 draft budget is increasing the cost of the seniors’ monthly bus pass to $108 from the current $49, as well as rescinding free fare days for seniors on wednesdays and saturdays.
the 120 per cent increase blindsided seniors and other groups, including youth and post-secondary students, who also face new or increased fares.
“the sticker shock of this increase is that kind of thing that will discourage many people from using the bus,” centretown resident alayne mcgregor warned the transit commission on nov. 25. “and, let’s be honest, public safety is better if people are on the bus than driving their cars when they’re over 80.”
on nov. 25, about three dozen speakers lined up to give the transit commission an earful about fare increases.
the major motion on the table was from beacon hill-cyrville coun. tim tierney, a pitch to reduce the proposed monthly fare increase from $108 to $78.50 at a cost $530,000, and to reinstate free fares for seniors on wednesdays at a cost of $290,000.
the costs would be covered by reducing contributions to the transit capital reserves by $820,000. the $78.50 monthly fare is 42 per cent of the cost of an adult fare.
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tierney said efforts should also be made to let low-income seniors know that they would qualify for an equipass for those below the low-income threshold, currently around $24,000 a household.
at $58.25 a month, the equipass is about half the cost of an adult pass, but applying for one takes time, and it’s unclear how many applications can be processed by jan. 1, considering that the budget won’t be finalized by city council until dec. 11.
tierney, a member of the working group on the long-range financial plan for transit that also includes mayor mark sutcliffe and councillors jeff leiper and glen gower, said he “drew the short straw” in bringing the motion forward.
“and i’m fine with it. i have a thick skin,” he said. “people are willing to pay if (public transit) works. and we all agree that it doesn’t.”
sutcliffe had signalled last week that he thought the increase to seniors fees was too high.
“over the past few days, we’ve all heard from ottawa residents about the proposed increases in transit fares for seniors included in the draft budget,” sutcliffe wrote in an email to councillors, adding that he had spoken to the other members of the working group, and the members all agreed it had to be addressed.
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“when we heard about getting rid of the wednesday (free fare) specifically, we were all saying, ‘wow, this is not game on,'” tierney said monday, pointing out that many seniors worked their medical appointments, social gatherings and trips to the grocery store around getting free transit fares on wednesdays.
but stuart mackay, one of the co-founders of ottawa transit riders, said even cutting the proposed fare increase for seniors in half would lose transit riders. when fares go up significantly, riders make financial choices. some users might choose to take on the debt of buying cheap used cars, he said.
mackay said he feared oc transpo was losing a generation of transit riders who would not be coming back because the system had become too unaffordable. seniors may not buy passes on a regular basis. that means they will use transit less and face more social isolation.
in the budget, the transit commission faces reaching a workable balance between raising fares for transit users and increasing the transit levy for taxpayers. most fares have gone up by five per cent, and the transit levy will increase by eight per cent under the draft budget. there are no increases to the deeply discounted equipass for low-income residents and the community pass for odsp recipients.
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gower, chair of the transit commission, said for all fares and trips combined the average fare paid in 2024 was $2.15 per trip, compared to a regular adult fare of $3.80. a five per cent increase to the u-pass for post-secondary students will add up to about $3 a month and is still only about 60 per cent of the regular monthly adult pass, he said.
“more and more people are using our discounted fare categories, and that’s not a bad thing. but it’s a big shift in our ridership and revenue,” gower said.
“we tried to structure these changes to be fair and aligned with what other cities offer, while keeping increases as manageable as possible. for example, the adult fare increase is about 20 cents per ride.”
gower said sutcliffe asked him to share with the transit commission that he continued to have “regular and constructive” discussions with other levels of government about the funding gap for transit.
“the gap is too large to address on our own as a city, and their support is going to be crucial in 2025 and especially in future years to ensure not only that we can deliver a sustainable transit service, but that we can actually keep expanding and improving our service to serve ottawa’s growing population,” gower said.
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student leaders told the transit commission they were not consulted about the five per cent increase to the u-pass. the discounted cost of the u-pass is included in student fees at the university of ottawa, carleton, algonquin college and saint paul university.
students account for 27 per cent of fare revenue through the u-pass agreement, university of ottawa student union president delphine robitaille said.
the contract with the city limits fare increases to 2.5 per cent, she said.
“let me be very clear: should students opt to part ways with u-pass, it would not totally be in response to a potential five per cent increase. the proposed breach of contract is only the latest example of the de-prioritization of transit riders in the city, particularly students,” robitaille said.
“it was misguided to cut off peak service that stakeholders of one of your largest contracts depend on to get to class and work, and it would be misguided to increase their fare in violation of our agreement. you can’t afford to lose a $20-million contract, either. as for students, they can’t afford to lose access to affordable public transportation, but they can’t afford to spend nearly $500 a year on dwindling service that doesn’t meet their needs.”
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meanwhile, a motion from gloucester-southgate coun. jessica bradley proposes to keep the seniors pass at the current level and retain free fare wednesdays by reducing the 2025 contribution to the transit capital reserve by $850,000 and by increasing the transit levy by $440,000 — or 94 cents per urban household.
that will be before the committee of the whole before the budget is finalized on dec. 11, along with a couple of other motions.
the equipass is funded through the community and social services budget, bradley said. that would transfer the pressure from the transit budget to community and social services, she noted.
capital ward coun. shawn menard said post-secondary tuition and budgets had already been set. his motion asked city council to approve that staff enter into negotiations with the administration and students to achieve the final revenue targets and report back to the transit commission by the end of june 2025, as well as investigate whether other institutions might be interested in joining the u-pass program.
“this would maintain the existing agreements with the schools, because they have not agreed to any increases, and it would give time for oc transpo administration and students to get together and consult on this and talk about what makes sense in the future,” menard said.
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the draft budget would eliminate free rides for children 11 and 12 years old, noted menard, who has another motion urging the city to establish the equivalent of u-pass for youth under 18 and asked that the city work with ontario’s ministry of education and local school boards.
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