City backs down on lofty monthly bus fare increase for seniors

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Here’s to Grey Power. The city’s seniors have been heard loud and clear.

After voicing their displeasure about the proposed 120 per cent increase in the price of OC Transpo’s monthly senior bus passes in last week’s 2025 draft budget, city council is backing down.

At least partly.

Spurred into action following an internal memo from Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on Monday, the city’s transit committee will put their calculators back to work at next Monday’s meeting, aiming to reduce the burden for bus travellers aged 65 and older.

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Transit chair Glen Gower says seniors will ultimately be receiving “up to a 60 per cent” discount on regular adult fares by the time council votes on the final budget Dec. 11.

A regular adult monthly fare is set to rise to $135 in 2025. Last week’s draft budget saw seniors’ rates hiked to $108 per month, a whopping leap from the current $49.

The city’s seething seniors didn’t take that lying down, reacting swiftly and strongly, a message that the mayor hasn’t ignored.

“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 to councillors. “Based on your feedback, I’ve spoken with the other members of the working group on the long range financial plan for transit — Councillors (Jeff) Leiper, Gower and (Tim) Tierney — and we all agree that this is an area that needs to be addressed.”

A 40 per cent reduction on the regular monthly adult fare would amount to $81. A 50 per cent cut would mean a monthly fee of $67.50 and a 60 per cent price break would see seniors forking out $54 to ride Ottawa transit.

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Wherever that number falls, of course, it will still represent a significant hike from the existing monthly rate.

“We’ll be working with staff to see what we can do,” said Gower. “We have decided not to raise any of the other fares (from the draft budget) and we have a little wiggle room with the rest of the budget.”

Gower also says that seniors will still be able to ride for free at least one day per week. Currently, the over-65 crowd can travel without cost on Wednesdays and Sundays, and part of the transit committee discussion next week will be focused on whether to keep it free of charge for both days.

The revamped fare structure will amount to a revenue shortfall of between $1 million and $1.2 million. Ideally, Gower says the difference will come out of the transit budget.

Council has no plans to further increase the proposed 2025 property tax bump of 3.9 per cent.

Katherine Lipsett, a senior who lives near the Rideau Centre and no longer drives, is one of the many who have taken the city and OC Transpo to task.

She has health issues and has written to Sutcliffe and Coun. Stephanie Plante, expressing all of the financial concerns and travel issues she deals with on a daily basis in order to get to doctor appointments and other activities, many of them outside of the downtown core.

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Lipsett is anxiously waiting to see what city council feels is an appropriate monthly fee.

Depending where the number lands, it may not go far enough, and she could be forced to give up on the monthly pass altogether and only travel a couple of days per week instead.

“If your rent goes up five per cent and your pension goes up five per cent, you kind of figure everything will even out in the five per cent area,” she said. “I’m really glad people have reacted to (the price increases). I understand that OC Transpo is in trouble, but I personally don’t feel it’s the ridership that has caused the trouble. They really seem to be tone deaf about how the increases are going to hurt people.”

She thanks OC Transpo drivers and mechanics, among others, for stepping up in their support of seniors.

“Many seniors are on fixed incomes,” she said. “They have to start cutting things. In some cases, it could force people off transit.”

Despite city council’s decision to make changes to last week’s draft budget proposal, Ottawa Transit Riders co-founder and board member Kari Elliott isn’t impressed.

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She says there should have been no fare increases whatsoever for what she describes as the “transit death spiral”.

Echoing Lipsett, she says low-income seniors could still be forced to cut back on their city travel, including volunteering and other social outings, due to the price hikes.

That was the concern for the Council on Aging of Ottawa when the original lofty price jump was proposed, a move the group says “blindsided” them.

Elliott also wonders whether council is playing a “bait and switch” strategy by at first announcing a shocking price increase and then hoping to gain favour by reducing that increase slightly.

“I didn’t think they would stick with that 120 per cent increase,” she said.

At least six Canadian cities, including Montreal, Hamilton, Orangeville, Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington, currently offer free city transit for seniors.

While the monthly rate is $128 in Toronto, other major Canadian cities cut seniors a significant transit break. In Calgary, it’s $35 per month. Calgary charges elderly riders $154 per year and the fee in Hamilton is $415 annually.

kwarren@postmedia.com

X: Citizenkwarren

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