Calgary Transit asks city council for $19M to help pay for low-income pass

City council is being asked to approve a one-time, $19-million investment next year to help fund the low-income monthly transit pass as budget deliberations entered a third day. If council doesn't, Calgary Transit warns the cost could be passed along to riders.

According to the head of Calgary Transit, the money is needed due to a shortfall in provincial funding as well as a growing number of Calgarians signing up for the pass. 

Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming says 40 per cent of riders now use the low-income pass. Along with a change in commuting habits and an end to federal pandemic-related subsidies, this has contributed to an overall $33-million budget shortage.

She says operations will be directly impacted if council rejects the additional funding for the low-income monthly pass.

"In order to protect the low-income transit pass, we need about $19 million, and if we don't get that funding, we'll have to look at a variety of different options," said Fleming. 

"One might be service reductions, increases to fares and, finally, changes to some of the services we're used to having."

If the one-time money isn't approved by council, Fleming says the organization would have to find other ways to fund the pass as opposed to ending the program completely. 

That could translate into rates becoming more expensive. According to Fleming, upping the cost of riding within Calgary Transit would add from 60 to 70 cents to transit fares. 

"It would be a 14 per cent increase in fares," Fleming told reporters at city hall on Wednesday, adding that fares are already scheduled to increase in 2025 based on previously approved amounts. 

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot is one of the five councillors who announced 20 proposed amendments to the budget Tuesday, and he says the province — not the city — should be paying more.

He says it's because providing income support is a provincial government responsibility.

"The low-income transit pass is a direct function of income," he told reporters Tuesday. 

"The determination of whether you qualify or not is income-based, therefore it equates to income support. And we know that this is not a municipal responsibility."

Chabot believes that many of the challenges for next year's budget are linked to population and inflationary increases that have put stress on necessary services, such as transit access for low-income Calgarians. 

What's more, the councillor says that because the federal government boosted immigration targets, he wants it to also kick in some capital for low-income passes. 

"Immigration and adding more people to our city is contributing to our deficiency in our transit funding, specifically on low-income transit passes," Chabot said.

"I'd like to see 100 per cent of it covered by other orders of government because it is income support. [The city doesn't] get any income tax as an order of government, and it's all directly tied to income."

The low-income monthly transit pass offers reduced rates for Calgary Transit riders. The cost to purchase the pass varies based on a sliding scale that accounts for three levels of low income.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek says she anticipates council will need to have tough conversations with Calgary Transit when it comes to what can be done about budget shortfalls.

"We can see that more people are taking transit than they were a couple of years ago, so that's really good that ridership is up," she said Wednesday. 

"We need to continue investing and making sure that everyone has equal access to transit."

Following the province's decision to cut its share of funding for low-income transit passes in Calgary and Edmonton earlier this year — and its subsequent reversal of that decision 24 hours later — Gondek also added that the city continues to advocate to other levels of government to emphasize the need to secure that funding long-term. 

"The deal was that municipalities would take care of core services, but that we would do it in partnership with the other two orders of government who are enjoying the amount of income tax that they're collecting from our city," she said.