Studying the effects and costs of providing permanent, free transit in Ottawa could cost the city close to $1 million, according to city staff.
In a memo to the City Council sent Monday, Rene Amilcar, director general of transit services, and Wendy Stefanson, the city’s chief financial officer, said public transportation consultant Brendan Hemilly has been working with the city to develop a possible structure for a study to answer the questions identified by the Council on tariff structures.
“We have to look at what other cities are doing. There are some good examples and we can learn from them. We want it to be a success and that is why this proposal is being put forward,” Coun. Teresa Kavanagh told CTV News Ottawa.
According to the memo, staff estimated — based on Hemily’s advice — that a full study of the matter would take up to a year to complete and cost between $700,000 and $900,000, including project management staff time.
Currently, the memo says, there is no funding available to conduct this study unless other work is postponed to find the money. The money could be included in the 2023 budget if council directs staff to do so.
Staff is considering three possible fare structures for OC Transpo: free transit for all passengers, changing the revenue/cost ratio and eliminating the 2.5 percent annual fare increase.
Eliminating the fares would cost an estimated $209 million based on pre-pandemic transit usage. Staff say the move will increase the average property owner’s transit fee by an additional $482 in the first year.
An adult transit rider using a monthly pass pays $1,506 at the current rate for a full year of service.
Some riders say eliminating fares could help.
“I definitely think it would be very helpful. There are many people who cannot afford it. It’s really expensive,” said transit user Kayla Taylor.
Others, however, don’t like the idea of a property tax increase.
“Getting free rides and so forth, yes, that would be good for us, but once again, property taxes are going to go up.” I don’t think that’s fair to people,” said rider Emil Rutledge.
Shifting the revenue-to-expenditure ratio from the current 45:55 to the proposed 30:70, meaning fares would account for 30 percent of transit funding and taxes would cover 70 percent, would increase property taxes by an average of $162 per year.
Eliminating the 2.5 percent annual rate increase would cost the average taxpayer an additional $11 per year.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced transit traffic in Ottawa, and it has yet to recover. While higher levels of management have helped offset lost revenue during the pandemic, the council directed staff last spring to draft a plan to explore different fare structures for future policy decisions.
Kavanagh says the recovery of passengers is critical.
“At the end of the day, we need to get more vagrants into places on transport to put it to good use,” she said.
The City Council is currently on summer break and approaching the pre-election period in which financial decisions are limited. Municipal elections will be held on October 24.
At least two mayoral candidates have spoken out on the subject. Mark Sutcliffe said in a tweet that Ottawa “can’t afford to make transit free” and instead vowed to “fix light rail and improve bus service.”
We don’t need to spend $900,000 on a consultant’s study to tell us what every taxpayer already knows: We can’t afford to make transit free.
Let’s work together to fix the tram and improve bus services.https://t.co/mPPfozdP6W
— Mark Sutcliffe (@_MarkSutcliffe) July 12, 2022
Param Singh also said a study would not be necessary and said he would rather the money be spent on affordable housing.
We don’t need to spend almost $900,000 consulting on something that is not currently viable. We need 2 fixed transits, make them reliable and accessible. If the city has $900,000 to spare, I’d spend it on affordable housing and give a few families a place to call home.
— VoteParamSingh2022 (@VoteParam2022) July 13, 2022
–With files from CTV’s Dave Charbonneau.
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