Council to vote on proposal to further reduce senior OC Transpo fares

Council will vote on a motion to further reduce the cost of a senior monthly pass as councillors meet Wednesday to approve the 2025 City of Ottawa budget.

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The motion moved by councillors Riley Brockington and supported by Jessica Bradley proposes to make the cost of a seniors' monthly pass increase from $49 to $58.25 per month starting in January 2025.

City staff had previously proposed a 120 per cent increase in the cost for a pass in the 2025 draft budget, from $49 to $108, but public backlash led councillors to lessen the increase to $78.50 at the last Transit Commission meeting.

The proposed rate for an adult monthly pass is $135 with the seniors price being a 57 per cent discount on the regular rate.

The approximately $9 increase for seniors would align the cost with the price of an EquiPass, which provides discounted fares for low-income households.

Transit Commission chair Glen Gower anticipates the motion will be supported by councillors.

"Our big concern was we wanted to make sure that if there's lower income seniors out there, that they have access to a deeply discounted pass without having to go through a lot of bureaucracy," he told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Kristy Cameron on Tuesday afternoon.

"This is the compromise that we've ended up with for tomorrow."

The motion proposes paying for the discount with an offsetting of $820,000 to the transit capital reserve, budgeted at $63.5 million, and through an increase to the transit levy of 0.11 per cent, or about 94 cents per urban household.

The proposal also calls for council to direct city staff to work with school boards and the Ministry of Education to explore the feasibility of the development of a U-Pass for students under 18-years-old, a program that provides discounted fares to post-secondary students.

The city still plans eliminate free transit for 11- and 12-year-olds and will be doing away with discounted youth transit fare for 13- to 18-year-olds, requiring riders to get an adult transit fare.

University students have raised concerns about the city's plans to increase the cost of the U-Pass five per cent in 2025, hiking the price from $229 to $240 a semester. Universities had said the proposal was a violation of their allowable increase of 2.5 per cent per year for the program.

A motion by Coun. Menard at the last Transit Commission meeting to direct staff to enter into consultations with the four affected post-secondary institutions' administration and students was approved unanimously. Staff are directed to report back with results by the end of June 2025.

The U-Pass would stay at the regular 2.5 per cent increase at the start of the spring semester but students are still set to see a 5 per cent increase at the start of the fall semester, according to Gower.

OC Transpo faces a $120 million hole in its budget over the next three years. Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe had previously said "tough decisions on how to fund transit" had to be made, including transit fare hikes and funding more efficiencies.

The 2025 budget includes a $36 million placeholder for possible funding from upper levels of government for public transit.

The budget includes across the board increases for transit, including a 5 per cent increase for the cost of a single adult ride. If approved, a single-ride adult fare would increase to $4.00, the fourth highest in the county.

Councillors will meet Wednesday to approve the final $5 billion city budget, which is set to include a 3.9 per cent property tax increase for most residents.