The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) recently initiated its first-ever post-secondary student transit pass. The new pass lowers the monthly rate from $121 to $99. However, students at private career colleges are ineligible.
TTC communications supervisor Danny Nicholson said the move was made to prevent students registered in “just one course” at a career college from using the discounted pass all year. It was the best way in which the TTC could “police it,” he said.
The TTC website states that to be eligible for the pass “students must be a full-time or part-time degree or diploma student in a recognized post-secondary institution.”
Laura Bailey, media communications co-ordinator for the Ontario Association of Career Colleges, said these requirements are flawed.
“There are people who may be taking one class per semester at community colleges . . . who are eligible, but the students who are attending class 25 to 35 hours a week at our schools aren’t?” she said.
Nicholson said the TTC has been asked to look into the cost of including career colleges and that it’s still too soon to tell.
TTC chair Adam Giambrone could not be reached for comment, but has been quoted saying that the TTC will look into including career colleges in the 2011 budget.
Until then, Bailey said the OACC intends to bring the issue to the Sept. 30 TTC meeting. She said the definition of who is eligible needs to be addressed.
“The definition they chose defines the college program as a program that takes two to three years to complete. If you were to look at a two-year college program, that’s only 16 months because they’re only there eight months a year, whereas our students will go 12 months in the same program. It’s just the way the year is broken up,” Bailey said.
In Ottawa, the U-Pass is currently restricted to Carleton University and University of Ottawa students, but that may change.
Marc-André Lepine, president of L’Association Etudiant de la Cité Collégiale, said the Orleans-based college initially chose not to opt in because 40 per cent of the students came from Quebec and a vast majority drove.
However, demand is increasing. “I’ve gotten a few calls, emails about it,” he said. Lepine said he’s set up meetings with people at U of O and Carleton to start the process.
“I have a couple of meetings to look over what are the steps that need to be taken in order to have access to it,” he said. Lepine said he intends to hold a referendum to gauge interest.
In Toronto, Bailey said students cannot wait. Should the TTC meeting not work out in their favour, she said the OACC is looking into offsetting student transit costs by purchasing a mass amount of metro passes.
“It won’t be nearly as cheap,” she said, “but it will at least be cheap enough that we can give them a break for the next year.”