Vulnerable Take Another Hit From Sutcliffe: QUOTABLE

“It definitely came as a shock that the City of Ottawa was knowingly proposing to city council to breach an agreement, a legally binding agreement, that they’ve had for the last 14 or so years.”

University of Ottawa Student Union president Delphine Robitaille

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is not in the strongest of bargaining positions with students at present:

Sutcliffe has an agreement with the four big post secondary institutions to keep U-Pass price increases to 2.5 per cent but he plans to raise it to five per cent unilaterally. First poor seniors. Now poor students. Will Sutcliffe’s next election platform be based on condemning motherhood and apple pie?

His bargaining position?

• The No-Train to the University of Ottawa has a dismal reliability record and has derailed several times.
• The City of Ottawa had a perfectly running train system where the unfinished new Trillium Line is located that once served Carleton University. The new line is two years late.
• Algonquin College is waiting for any train to show up as the extension to the Confederation Line is two years late. The wait will probably be longer given the city’s inability to accurately predict completion dates. Furthermore construction on the line appears to be moving at Municipal Standard Time.

So Sutcliffe, in wanting to raise U-Pass prices, is playing chicken with about 74,000 students who are always short of money and quick to organize. One other thing is that if you have an agreement, the ethical thing is to honour it. Break it and the students can do what they want and lose faith in government. That 74,000 students is a lot of money and if that agreement fails, instead of an automatic transfer from the student associations, the city will collecting individual fares. Wonder how many students will pay with cash?

Another quote from Robitaille on the absurd and mean machinations by Sutcliffe and company on transit fares which rings true:

“It’s definitely disheartening that the City of Ottawa seems to be taking out their financial mismanagement on people who depend on public transit in Ottawa and who are vulnerable.”

The city didn’t even contact the student associations with which they have the U-Pass agreement. Instead the city contacted university administrators.

Robitaille says to raise fees the student association must hold a referendum for its members.

Not too difficult to handicap that vote.

Sutcliffe has thrown an anchor to 74,000 students, untold elderly poor and, with his sprung structures, mayoral strongholds in Kanata and Barrhaven.

Sutcliffe must be very confident of being re-elected.

Ken Gray

For You:

Service Key To Best OC Transpo: BENN

City Hall Einsteins Make Unprecedented Transit Blunder

Sutcliffe Threatens Student Transit Pass Hike

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