Hiking Transit Fare ‘Counterproductive’: CULLEN
This is an open letter to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe from former councillor, MPP and community activist Alex Cullen:
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Mark Sutcliffe
Mayor, City of Ottawa
Ottawa City Hall
Dear Mayor Sutcliffe:
City of Ottawa Budget 2025
Proposed Transit Fare Increases
I am writing to you to ask that you reject the proposed OC Transpo fare increases in the 2025 City of Ottawa budget, and replace this amount by adjusting the Transit Levy accordingly.
As you know, the City’s Official Plan and Transportation Master Plan promotes increasing public transit usage (along with walking and cycling) to reduce the pressure to accommodate vehicle use as the City grows. This only makes sense: roads are expensive to build, widen and maintain. Public transit is both economical and better for the environment.
However, raising transit fares is counterproductive in promoting public transit, as it hampers at best and reduces at worst transit ridership.
Transit ridership in Ottawa peaked in 2011, at 103.5 million rides. However, despite both population growth and employment growth in Ottawa since then, transit ridership declined to 97.4 million rides in 2019 (pre-pandemic). Why? Because from 2011 to 2019 City Council approved higher-than inflation fare increases each year.
Raising fares and losing riders also reduces OC Transpo’s revenues, contributing to an already serious revenue problem for OC Transpo. The September 2023 report Transit Long Range Financial Update expected ridership to reach 112 million rides in 2023 – the actual result was 64 million.
Last year a number of budget presentations warned that raising fares and cutting service would lead to revenue shortfalls for OC Transpo – this is what has happened. It is counterproductive to raise fares again, lose riders as a result, and face another revenue shortfall again.
I support the draft budget’s proposed increase in the Transit Levy, as raising this levy to maintain transit service loses no riders. Making an adjustment to the Transit Levy to accommodate the revenue otherwise generated by the proposed higher fares would, again, lose no transit riders.
On the matter of the proposed 120% increase in the Seniors Bus Pass: this surprise proposal, done without any consultation with seniors groups, is unacceptable. The Seniors Bus Pass discount has been in place for decades, in recognition of the contribution seniors have made to building our community. This is not an expensive program, as something in the order of 7,000 Seniors Bus Passes are bought annually. I applaud the recommendation to maintain current levels for the Community Bus Pass (for ODSP recipients) and the EquiPass (for low-income residents) and recommend the same treatment be accorded to the Seniors Bus Pass.
I would point out that 9.5% of Ottawa seniors (age 65+) live below the poverty line in Ottawa (2023 LICO threshold for cities with populations greater than 500,000 is $24,000/year), according to Ottawa Public Health. The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) income threshold for a single senior is an income of $22,000/year. Clearly those seniors receiving the GIS should not face such a fare increase being proposed for the Seniors Bus Pass. Instead they should be covered by the Community Bus Pass program or equivalent in recognition of their low-income status.
Providing accessible, affordable and reliable public transit in Ottawa is one of City Council’s prime responsibilities. It is counterproductive to raise fares and lose transit riders with the result of another deficit for OC Transpo next year. To ensure affordable transit that will attract riders and meet the City’s goals means accessing the Transit Levy to pay for this – that would be a good investment.
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It is a good letter. The city does not understand that the supply and demand curve goes both ways and if they reduced the fares, they would have more ridership which is kind of the point of having transit.
Aren’t we currently paying in the order of $7 miillion annually for the Lansdowne south stands debt retirement? Estimates I’ve seen range from $15 to $20 million annually to service the debt for Lansdowne 2.1 unless the smaller facilities doing the same thing are more profitable. Seems to me this would go a long way towards the transit issue.
Alex makes some good points, particularly with affordability for some seniors, but to assume that the drop in transit use in Ottawa is solely because of price is an assumption we often hear but never offered evidence to substantiate it. Transit use also depends on other factors such as convenience, commute time and safety. How much did the inconvenience of shutting down much of the transitway in order to construct the LRT contribute to fewer riders. Impact of the accidents at the Westboro Transit Station and at the rail-crossing in Barrhaven? We keep hearing about how more cycling facilities will draw people out of their cars, but perhaps much of the growth in cycling may have come from transit users. Do we know? While we talk about the need to densify the downtown, this has actually been going on for some time now. How downtown employees are now choosing to live downtown within walking distance of work instead of farther out since there is now more downtown housing? 15 minute neighbourhoods is going to decrease not increase transit use. Has the City ever done a proper analysis of why people take transit, why they don’t and where are cyclists coming from? As well, we have a system designed to service the downtown. If employment has shifted from the downtown to other areas of the City, this would also likely result in driving being more convenient than transit. All factors that have nothing to do with the price of a ticket. As well, we are constantly told that geographically we are the largest municipality in Canada (incidentally we are only #8) but we are one of few spread-out cities that doesn’t have a zoned fare structure. If pricing was by zones covered, would that make a difference to pricing? Unfortunately, it is probably not just the city that might not want to know the answers to many of these questions.
Taking the easy way out, like every other decision this council makes.
As other cities start moving towards transit systems that are offered at no cost to riders to to promote increased usage, reduce street traffic, etc, etc, Ottawa continues to use the old one size fits all solution of charging more money for everything. City councilors are paid to be creative forward thinkers. Why is it that small cities like Orangeville are open to trying new solutions to resolve problems while Ottawa continues to adopt the same old solution that does nothing but cause its residents more frustration.