The future is fare-free
On March 30, I presented to the Ottawa City Transit Commission on Councillor S. Menard’s Motion No. TRC 2021-24/2.
Good morning.
I’d like to thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to this motion today.
My name is Róisín West. I am a proud resident of the River Ward where I serve on the Riverside Park Community Association. But today I address you as an individual, a longtime transit user, and a researcher.
I recently completed a case study on the public transit system in Thunder Bay evaluating it through the lens of reconciliation and equity. I also compiled an Index examining the changing ways in which Canadians are commuting to work. Simply put, the public transit systems of 2010 or even 2019 will not solve the climate crisis that faces us in 2022 and beyond. Moreover, relying on farebox recovery revenue to achieve our goals is shortsighted and inequitable. In order to understand where need and potential are greatest, we need to ask the right questions and gather the right data.
In 2019, OC Transpo’s farebox recovery ratio was 45%,¹ meaning that the fares paid by riders covered nearly half of the system’s operating costs. This level of reliance on farebox revenues was rated by Moody's as creating significant financial risk for transit systems.² And we don’t have to imagine what that risk looks like; we’ve seen its effects unfold in real time across Canada over the course of the pandemic.³
We have an opportunity now to recognize how broken a farebox recovery funding model is and to look beyond it. If public transit is truly intended to be a tent pole in Ottawa’s climate mitigation plan, gambling on farebox recovery to fund it seems like a pretty big bet and one that I wouldn’t want to take. Moreover, it’s an inequitable move. When we download costs to transit riders we are downloading costs to those who have no other option for travel. We are squeezing the “have nots” of our community to fund critical infrastructure.
Ottawa is not alone in considering fare-free transit. The B.C. government recently removed transit fares for children 12 and under. There are six cities in Alberta and Quebec where fares have been eliminated entirely.⁴ During the pandemic, Thunder Bay took the same step as Ottawa and temporarily removed fares for all riders. Following the fare-free phase, Poverty Free Thunder Bay (PFTB) conducted a survey of transit users to see how the program had impacted them.⁵
Responses from participants spoke to the impact that the program had on improving their quality of life. One resident reported “I haven’t had to worry about if I need to give up food or a bill to get my husband and myself monthly passes."⁶
Where we put our transit resources matter. In Ottawa between 1996 and 2016, between suburbs commuters with a commute of more than 5 kilometres showed the biggest growth, comprising 33.9% of all commuters in Ottawa-Gatineau.⁷ This is critical to planning because, while a third of Ottawa’s traditional commuters (meaning those who come from outside to inside the city core) were taking public transit pre-pandemic only 7.7% of between-suburbs commuters were taking transit.⁸ My concern with limiting the scope of this project to an area like Bank Street or around a central hub is that it furthers the idea that transit is for some people and not for others. There’s also another issue.
During the Ottawa occupation, I delivered home cooked meals to people affected by the convoy. That included people who didn’t feel safe leaving their homes in the downtown and Centretown areas. It also meant driving 35 minutes into Gatineau to deliver food to someone who spends an hour and forty-five minutes each way on the bus getting to and from their minimum wage job downtown. The rental crisis is pushing our most marginalized out of the core. A limited scope program does not reach these people. A quick tour through the Neighbourhood Equity Indexes for Ottawa reminds us that need is everywhere.⁹ We need to be bold in what we propose.
When considering the scope of this project, I would encourage the City to conduct meaningful stakeholder engagement with all of the marginalized communities for whom public transit is a lifeline. We don’t know that which we do not measure.
Access to transit is a gender justice issue, it is racial justice issue, it is a disability and class issue. When implemented with these things in mind, it is critical infrastructure that connects marginalized individuals to supports, services and opportunities.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope that you will support this motion today.
Notes
1 West, R. (2022, March 1). All’s fare? Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/alls-fare
2 Moody’s Public Sector Europe. (2021, March 29). Structural fall in ridership post pandemic opens substantial funding shortfall. https://www.lagazettedescommunes.com/telechargements/2021/04/sector-in-depth-global-transportation-29mar21.pdf
3 West, R. (2022, March 1). All’s fare? Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/alls-fare
4 Vangeest, A. (2022, March 1) Free to ROAM: Fare-free public transportation arrives in Alberta. Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/free-to-roam-fare-free-public-transportation-arrives-in-alberta
5 West, R. (2022, March 1) Settler Work: Equity and safety gaps in Canada's public transit systems . Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/settler-work-what-thunder-bay-can-tell-us-about-equity-and-safety-gaps-in-canadas-public-transit-systems
6 West, R. (2022, March 1) Settler Work: Equity and safety gaps in Canada's public transit systems . Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/settler-work-what-thunder-bay-can-tell-us-about-equity-and-safety-gaps-in-canadas-public-transit-systems
7 Savage, K. (2019). Results from the 2016 Census: Commuting within Canada’s largest cities. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2019001/article/00008-eng.htm
8 Savage, K. (2019). Results from the 2016 Census: Commuting within Canada’s largest cities. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2019001/article/00008-eng.htm
9 https://neighbourhoodequity.ca/