Ottawa’s seven student associations have joined forces to convince city councillors to drop the age restriction on monthly student bus passes.
An age cap of 19 for buying OC Transpo student monthly bus passes was approved in the summer of 2012 by city council.
Now students 20 and older purchasing a monthly bus pass fall into the adult category, for which passes are $20 more expensive.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (student issues) Gina Parker said saving even $20 a month is important to students.
“Eighty dollars is a textbook, or groceries twice. It is valuable, especially for our demographic,” she said.
To object to the age cap, Parker said the Algonquin Students’ Association presented transit commission chair Diane Deans with 10,000 signatures last year.
Parker said Deans did not acknowledge that petition, so this time the student associations came together to present each city councillor with a letter.
The letter stated the student unions’ position and that they’re all united on the issue, Parker said.
“We don’t want there to be any age discrimination,” she said.
After the letters were dropped off, Parker said she spent the day trying to set up meetings with each councillor. A few of the meetings have already happened, but Parker wouldn’t say what the responses from councillors were.
David Pepper, manager of business and operational services at OC Transpo, said via email that other cities—including Kingston, Vancouver, and Calgary—all have similar age caps in place.
Pepper didn’t comment on whether OC Transpo would consider changing the student discount age cap.
If the age cap is removed, other fare prices might change in order to compensate for the lost revenue, Pepper said.
“A change to a single fare category would impact fares in all other fare categories, or would force service level changes,” he said via email.
Capital Ward city councillor David Chernushenko, whose ward includes Carleton, confirmed that he supports eliminating the age cap.
Chernushenko said he didn’t fight against the cap when it was first introduced mostly because he didn’t think other councillors would’ve supported the fight against it.
“I didn’t choose at the moment to fight hard for it because you take the temperature of your fellow councillors and get a sense of what their appetite is . . . for making a change that is going to have some budget implications. I could see there was not much likelihood of success at that time,” Chernushenko said.
When city council resumes in mid-August, Chernushenko said he will consider bringing the issue in front of council.
This isn’t the first time student unions have come together to eliminate an age cap on OC Transpo student discounts. In 2009, city council reversed a decision made in 2008 that capped the age for student bus passes at 27.
Before council overturned the cap, it was protested by student unions petitioning council with more than 2,400 signatures.
The student associations will have support against this age cap from Ecology Ottawa, a local environmental association.
In return, Parker said CUSA is helping Ecology Ottawa with their Complete Streets program, which aims to make city streets accessible for all modes of transportation, including bicycles, pedestrians, and cars.
A motion to support the Complete Streets program passed at CUSA council July 10.
