City ready to reconsider 120% hike to transit passes for seniors, mayor says

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the city will revisit an unpopular budget proposal to raise the price of a monthly senior transit pass by more than 120 per cent, from $49 to $108.

The steep increase was floated last week as part of the city's 2025 draft budget, which proposes raising most OC Transpo fares by about about five per cent to help plug a $120-million funding gap while avoiding service reductions and keeping the transit levy under control for taxpayers.

The exception is senior monthly passes, which would more than double in price overnight if the proposal is adopted.

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"We'd rather not increase either fares or the transit levy by higher-than-normal amounts. And we don't want to have to reduce the discounts we provide. But most of all, we don't want to see reductions in service," Sutcliffe said during his budget day speech.

At the time, he described the fare increases as a "balanced approach" made necessary by an "absence of sustainable funding from other levels of government" for public transit.

Sutcliffe said the fare discounts offered to both seniors and students had been kept artificially low, and said the adjustments would be "more in line with what's offered in other cities."

Seniors 'targeted disproportionately'

Still, the proposal came as a shock to some advocates for seniors.

"I think that the seniors are going to feel — certainly, I do — that we're being targeted disproportionately compared to the rest of the fare increases," said Raynald Marchand, transportation committee chair with the Council on Aging of Ottawa.

The council's executive director Sarah Bercier warned that seniors, many of whom are on a fixed income, would be unable to afford the price of a monthly pass, and could miss out on appointments and activities as a result.

"They need to be engaged in the community, they need to be ... physically active, they need to get to their appointments, and those are things that are keeping them healthy and keeping them out of hospital," Bercier said.

Motion in the works

Sutcliffe now appears to have heeded those concerns. In an email to councillors on Monday, the mayor suggested the disproportionate increase to senior passes may be too steep after all.

"Over the past few days, we've all heard from Ottawa residents about the proposed increases in transit fares for seniors included in the draft budget. Based on your feedback, I've spoken with the other members of the working group on the long-range financial plan for transit ... and we all agree that this is an area that needs to be addressed," the mayor wrote.

Sutcliffe said the working group, which includes councillors Jeff Leiper, Glen Gower and Tim Tierney, is "working together on a solution", including identifying an alternative source of funding.

"Our intention is to bring a motion to the transit commission meeting next Monday. Once we have finalized a funding source and a proposed solution, we will share it with you."

CBC has not seen a draft of the motion, but Gower told CBC on Wednesday that it's likely to land "somewhere in the middle" of the current discount of roughly 60 per cent for seniors and the proposed increase, which he said is still 20 per cent under full cost.

Gower said the motion will also aim to preserve "at least one" of two free transit days for seniors, and he confirmed councillors have been getting an earful since the fare increase was proposed last week.

"We're hearing a lot from seniors. I think every councillor is, and it certainly wasn't our intention to have that drastic change. So we want to make sure we're restoring a better level of affordability for seniors in the budget," he said.

The 2025 draft budget will now undergo several weeks of debate and public input at committee. It is then expected to come back to council on Dec. 11 for a final vote.