Students voiced their transit concerns to government and transit officials at a Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) transit panel on Oct. 10.
Panelists included MPP Joel Harden, Coun. Shawn Menard, Ottawa Transit Riders co-founder Kerry Blais-Elliot, transit activist Sam Hersh and Free Transit Ottawa member Missy Thomas.
“Something I hear a lot from students regarding transit is they don’t know who’s out there advocating for them,” said CUSA associate vice-president government affairs Aidan Kallioinen. “They know the problems, but not who’s out there fixing them.”
“The purpose of this panel is to make sure students know there are people in the room and in the community that are listening,” he said.
Student concerns l included choosing to walk in winter weather rather than use transit, buses skipping stops, frequent delays and a lack of accessible seating due to overcrowding.
According to Hersh, many 200-series routes between Kanata and O-Train stations were cut.
These services, Hersh added, are predominantly used by students trying to get from the suburbs to campus.
Menard suggested these problems come from a lack of transit funding and poor policy decisions.
“We can find $400 million for a new stadium at Lansdowne, but we don’t have transit,” he said.
In September, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe proposed a 75-per-cent fare increase to address Ottawa’s $120-million structural transit deficit for the 2025 city budget.
The panelists’ other proposed solutions included splitting transit funding 50/50 with the Ontario government, divesting from road-widening projects and reallocating funds to the deficit, and developing more bus-only lanes.
An open Q&A session followed the panel. Campus media had the first opportunity to ask questions.
Audrey Pridham* from CKCU’s Midweek raised concerns regarding OC Transpo’s organization.
“We see students late for classes or just having to miss or skip a class because public transit either has been canceled or delayed, and there’s just no other easy way for you to get to class if you can’t afford Uber or you don’t have a car,” she said.
Pridham asked panelists how they can advocate and fix these student-specific concerns.
Menard said sending emails to OC Transpo is a good way for students to have their voices heard.
“We get emails from students all across the city, and that’s why student voices are so powerful,” said Menard.
“It’s important to send an email in because OC will track those and say, ‘oh, gee. People are having trouble here.’”
Horizon Ottawa’s upcoming event, Building a Better Budget, will focus on reviewing and discussing potential improvements to Ottawa’s municipal budget.
*Audrey Pridham has contributed to the Charlatan.
Featured image by Katryna Brady/The Charlatan.
