School bus authority facing $4.6-million shortfall if transit fares increase

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The school bus consortium that serves Ottawa’s two English language school boards faces a $4.6-million hit to its budget if the city increases youth transit fares on Jan. 1.

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In a memo to the board of directors of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA), interim general manager Cindy Owens says if fares increase then, it will represent a 31 per cent increase in the current budget for monthly student bus passes.

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If the increases are applied to a full school year, it would add up to a shortfall of $8.4 million to the operating budget — a 58.6-per-cent increase to the student bus pass budget, said Owens.

OSTA manages bus transportation for more than 74,000 students at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Of these, more than 20,000 students rely on public transit.

The authority is funded to provide bus passes for high school students who live more than 3.2 km away from school, and for Grade 7 and 8 students who live more than 1.6 km away from school.

The city’s draft budget includes significant fare increases for youth, which are passed on to the province. The youth monthly pass, which currently costs $99.25 a month, will increase to $135, the same as an adult monthly pass. Children 11 and 12 years old will also no longer ride for free.

The problem is that OSTA already has its funding for this school year. By raising prices in the middle of the school year, the city is asking the education sector to hand over $4.6 million it doesn’t have to give, said OCDSB Trustee Lyra Evans.

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The city is plugging the holes in its budget by downloading expenses on the eduction system, she said.

“I view this as the city looking around to see where they can pull money from to put into their transit budget.”

The draft budget was approved by the city’s transit commission on Nov. 25.

At the time, it was not clear that OSTA could not revisit its Ministry of Education bus pass funding until the next school year, said Trustee Lyra. The Ministry of Education’s funding cycle works according to the school year, not the calendar year, and the city did not take that into consideration, she said.

Owens said she has sent a letter to the city’s transit commission and city councillors asked that there be no changes to student bus passes until OSTA and the city can come to an agreement about an alternative to the proposed fare increases.

Owens said has also notified the Ministry of Education to ask about funding to cover the shortfall and is meeting with ministry officials on Dec. 5.

Meanwhile, there are concerns about where the money will come from.

“If nothing else changes, it has to be paid for through the general funds,” said Trustee Lyra.

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“We would be looking at ways to save from the general operating funds. Which would likely be staff positions.”

In addition to the impact the fare increases would have on the school boards, there are also students who are granted compassionate passes through the Accessibility to Ontarians with Disabilities Act and specialized programs that support students with barriers to completing school.

Fare increases would “inevitably” lead to significant cuts to the number of students these programs can support, starting in the new year, said Owens.

“Our school boards have already had to reduce the number of compassionate requests they can approve this year in order to meet financial constraints, leading to additional pressure on the budget for programs for students finishing high school, Indigenous students, and other vulnerable student populations.”

Trustee Lyra said she has already heard concerns about existing cuts to compassionate passes. “A lot of students aren’t getting the supports they have had in place in the past,” she said.

Many transit riders face fare increases in the 2025 budget, to be finalized Dec. 11 as OC Transpo faces a $120-million shortfall.

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Adult monthly fares are increasing to $135 from $128.75 and single adult cash fares are increasing by 20 cents to $4.05. The cost of a monthly Para Transpo pass at $43.25 will remain the same, as will the EquiPass, for people who are below a low-income threshold, at $58.25. 

But fare increases for seniors, youth and post-secondary students have particularly stirred up controversy.

Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard has tabled a motion urging the city to establish the equivalent of U-Pass for youth under 18 and asked that the city work with the Ministry of Education and local school boards. The U-pass is a discounted pass for full-time students at participating colleges and universities in Ottawa.

Menard, a former OCDSB trustee, notes in his motion that it’s the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and local school boards to provide for and pay for transportation for students who require transportation.

Extending a U-Pass for students under 18 without funding from the province or the school boards would create budget pressure for OC Transpo, said Menard. But he also points out that it’s to the city’s benefit to establish new and potentially life-long generations of transit riders.

Trustee Lyra said the best option would be to postpone the fare increases for youth under 18 until early summer, when the new school transportation funding cycle begins. Developing a student pass similar to the U-Pass would be a “bigger conversation,” she said.

“Our board can’t eat millions of dollars in surprise costs.”

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