Low Income Transit Pass Amendment

Statement Watch

All right. Hi, Council Mayor. I'm supporting this motion. My name is Mathieu Udon. I'm a resident of Vancouver. uh... i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i Has anyone ever had to wait four weeks for their first check? You have to hope that a free ride to the food bank, so you can get something for dinner, hopefully for lunch happens. You have to hope that sometimes, you know, you don't get a ticket from the police for doing this. You know, the same police force that was formed by our province, the primary purpose of giving an enforcement ticket. And the irony is I'm lost. I mean, those police officers are being paid over $100,000 a year to give struggling citizens like us and, you know, my friends and at one point myself who made under poverty wage take it to pay really almost $300 because you're not making that four-week cutoff for not being able to afford the $5. And further, you know, we're not even punishing higher-income drivers this way. We don't give them anywhere near as much for a parking ticket. So this is really part of enforcement on hoping you can get a ride under... The current fare price, which more and more people are forced to take, is very unfair to low-income earners. It's an asymmetrical policy. But one way I see we can easily correct that is with a low-income bus pass program in Vancouver. And I hope that council considers this and approves this motion. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Okay, thank you. Hello, I'm a resident of Vancouver. I'm speaking in support of the motion. It's mostly a simple impact statement. Like many other low-income people, I cannot afford to use transit more than a few times per month. My husband does the same. We live in the West End, and he has a friend in East Vancouver. And a few times a year, he walks there or rides his bike. I can't do that because I have disabilities. Well, the province has some provisions for people with disabilities. Without family money and support, it's difficult to be recognized as a person with disabilities, even though they're very visible. I had to retire due to disabilities after age 60, but before age 65. My own income is fixed. I have less than $500 per month after housing, but I'm not on social assistance. I have to consider and reject the, as of July, $7 cost to go to, say, Broadway or Main Street or Commercial Drive. I've fallen through the cracks. Lots of people fall through the cracks of the provincial program. In addition, there are so many people who just cannot afford to ride the bus. I have a friend raising young children on her own and working precariously from home. Even if her children do not have to pay, she can't afford to. Often people say they cannot pay and they're allowed to ride a bus, but risk a terrible fine even with that permission. Vancouver is expensive. Many people can't afford to live in the city, but work here at minimum wage jobs in poverty, and they have no choice but to spend $201.55 of their scant income just to get to work. And these prices are increasing in July, putting transit out of the reach of many, many more people who are doing their best. I am lucky because I don't have to leave my neighborhood to go to the bank or to the doctor or to the library, but many are not so lucky. Please have some compassion and consider your fellow Vancouverites who cannot afford to drive as you do, who have no choice but to take the bus, but also cannot afford to do so. Public transit is a public service. It is not expected to make a profit, particularly to the detriment of the lives of the poorest residents. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Hi, my name is Amin. I'm here from Movement Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. I'm a South Vancouver resident, and I'm speaking in support of this motion. Thank you, Councillor Orr, for bringing this motion forward. This is something we've been organizing around for the past month, pushing to expand the BC bus program to all low-income people. Right now, people are really feeling the pressure. The cost of everything keeps going up, and there's a lot of folks... And for a lot of folks, there's nothing left to cut. So even a 5% fare increase, some people might not notice it, but for others, it's significant. And people aren't asking for a handout. They're not lazy. People are trying to get to work, take care of their families. And affordable transit is one of the simplest ways we can actually support people in doing that in our communities. The reality is that we're behind a lot of other major cities in Canada already have a broader low-income transit pass. And Vancouver is seen as a leader in a lot of way in urban policy. And when it comes to affordability, we're falling behind. The reduced fare pilot program was a good step. But we need to build on that. People need something consistent, something permanent. And I'm asking you to support this motion and take a real step toward making transit more affordable for Vancouverites. Thank you.

Statement Watch

West End, and I would like to speak in favor of this motion today. I think it is absolutely unacceptable that we have one of the best transit cities in North America without actually having low-income people having the ability to afford taking the bus and the SkyTrain around our city. This affects their lives in many, many different ways, such as having to think about, hey, is me making this trip going to affect me financially? And this can apply in many different ways. People have to get all over the city for many different reasons. For example, if you are trying to get a job, you have to get all over the city to find job interviews and to go talk to potential employers. Taking a transit trip might mean thinking, hey, should I take this transit trip or should I eat dinner tonight or should I do my laundry, right? It is something that affects people in all sorts of different ways, and I think it is due time that we catch up with the rest of North America. I see my time. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Awesome, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Niu Abishami, and I'm speaking on behalf of myself and the North Shore Women's Center, a nonprofit in North Vancouver, where I'm also a resident of. I'm speaking in support of this motion. Thank you to Council Orr for bringing this forward. First, the cost of living is rising in Vancouver, as we know, every single year, even month, and transportation is such a crucial part of people's livelihoods. Whether it be going to work, as many have already said, taking their children to school, or just everyday needs, especially being in a metropolis, a robust transportation system is needed, and equitable access to these systems are essential. Having worked on the front lines with vulnerable members of our society, including those experiencing houselessness, gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, racialized individuals, and many others, I cannot stress how important having access to transit is. We as an organization at the North Shore Women's Center end up purchasing out-of-pocket transit passes for our clients all the time. And having a $25 low-income pass would be a game-changer. Additionally, if we want to follow through with our commitments to lowering our city's carbon emissions, what better way than by directly investing into transit and making it more accessible and the preferred option? In regards to the process of allocating these low-income passes, I know that a lot of community nonprofits like ours are already hands-on in the referral process for different types of resources, including Quest Outreach Society, the nonprofit grocery markets that are helping with the food affordability. to you that a low-income transit pass can drastically change the lives of so many vulnerable communities. I just want to say that equity means that everyone is seen and that we meet people where they're at to be able to ensure a fair and just society. And we have a lot of eyes on us right now, and I think that we must live up to our name and the great city that I know we are. Thank you so much for your time.

Statement Watch

Good morning chair and members of council. My name is Laura standard and I'm speaking in support of this motion Even though I don't quite understand why these resolutions are again necessary since council already approved Translinks recommendation for city staff to take most of these actions two years ago The only reason I can come up with is that once again the needs of low-income people are not given much priority in this council. Don't you think it's shameful that we are the only major Canadian city that has not created more equitable access to public transit? I truly hope... You will rectify this oversight and support all these motions. I also hope that you'll ask TransLink to change the existing low-income disability pass to one which has the same look as other low-income passes. Why do we have to other people in the disability community, subjecting those with invisible disabilities to questioning and suspicions that they are cheating? In closing, I cannot imagine why you would not approve these rather modest resolutions. So again, I ask that you approve them again, this time with urgency and timelines. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you, Chair and Councillors. My name is Nathan Davidovich, and I'm supporting Councillor Shaw's motion. The big question is how we got to be the most expensive and the most unfair transit fares in BC and Canada. Well, 50% of the regional transit ridership is in the city of Vancouver. However, we have very little control over our transit system, especially since 2008. Prior to 2008, we had three city councillors on the TransLink board. We have zero now. There are other problems created by the late Vancouver councillor George Puhl, who was the chair of the GVRD and TransLink. Without solving these problems via a new TransLink Act, nothing much will be achieved. Since 2017, there have been many promises to fix TransLink, but nothing has been done. Bus service in Vancouver will continue to deteriorate, as it has since 1999, when TransLink took over from BC Transit. Transit ridership per capita will continue to decline. It was 100 in 2019, and it's down to 75 transit trips per person on the average in 2025. Your staff yesterday, when they gave you an update, they never gave you these figures. I wonder why. But nobody's talking about the bad transit plan like Transport 2050, which is an unambitious plan. Nobody except the city of Surrey. They managed to put this item on the agenda of the June 25th, 2026 Mayor's Council. Surrey has a report on bus service improvements. Vancouver doesn't have such a report. So how are you going to come to that meeting without any knowledge or any advocacy to get things improved? You know, well, the main problem in Vancouver is that we have very few politicians that are pro-transit. And unless we change that in the election, I presume in October, then nothing much will happen because the staff cannot advocate for us because they are inexperienced. And as the Vancouver, you know, the Victoria time commies call them amateurs. the transit staff. So, anyhow, thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Matthew. I'm a Vancouver resident, and I support Councillor Orr's motion to bring about a low-income transit pass. My reasons for supporting this motion are pretty straightforward. First, senior TransLink staff and the Mayor's Council already signaled support for the initiative in a June 2024 meeting. I actually believe Councillor Kirby-Young was in attendance at that meeting. Second, the 2019 Metro Vancouver reduced fare pilot was considered highly successful and improved the quality of life for its participants. Unfortunately, its successes were not moved forward and implemented, but we have an opportunity to start that process today. Third, we also have historic precedent for Vancouver's ability to achieve province-wide transit improvements when previous city councillor Jean Swanson won free transit for kids under 12 across the whole province. Further, this will lead to numerous ancillary economic benefits from increased access to transit, reduced reliance on cars and the emissions they create, which also means lighter traffics for those who do use cars. decreased burden on our street infrastructure, and the benefits to individuals' health and quality of life as found in the 2019 pilot. Accessible and affordable transit improves the lives of everyone in our city, not just those who actively use the transit network. Lastly, many other Canadian cities already have a reduced fare transit pass. It's Vancouver that's behind the curve, and it's past time we catch up. The cost-benefit analysis is honestly so abundantly clear, I struggle to see how this council could reasonably oppose this motion. And respectfully, to ensure the work can actually begin expeditiously, reflective of the urgent need and the affordability crisis, I request council support this motion as written or with additional clauses rather than potentially diluted via strike-and-replace amendments. Thank you for your time. Let's make transit better for all.

Statement Watch

My name is Nav Sharma. You've seen me before advocating for better transportation across Vancouver and Metro Vancouver. I'm in support of this motion. I'd like to share a story of my grandfather who qualifies for the BC Bus Pass program and also share some concerns just so it's out there. My grandfather, he worked in government, and he's very, very proficient at English. He can speak and write at government comms kind of level. He loves paperwork. But he applied for the BC Bus Pass program, and it was a process for him. It was a challenge for him to apply. That being said, with that access, he is able to access transit and he's able to get around the city very easily. When we talk about the fare increase that TransLink has proposed for July 1st, 5% fare increase, we know that there's fare elasticity. When fares go up a certain percentage, that ridership goes down. With better service, this can be mitigated so more people have better options for transit. We want to make sure that people are taking transit, not because transit is just available for them, but because it actually gets them where they need to go for work, school, medical appointments, and social. If we want transit to be good, we need to make sure it's funded. And right now, we still don't have a stable source of funding for transit. I wanted to share the quote that you may have heard before. A developed country is not where the poor have cars, but it is where the rich have access to public transportation and use it. Other systems, aside from the access to the low-income pass, need to change to make transportation in the city universally accessible to all. But I think that this is a very small, quick step that we can win today to make transit accessible for more people. We need this low-income pass today, but not forever. Thank you.

Statement Watch

All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Dr. Devyani Singh. I'm a climate scientist, a finance professional and a renter in the city. And I'm speaking in strong support of this motion. Our transit system is in crisis. Just last week, TransLink workers voted 99% in favor of strike action. Pays go up again on Canada Day, another 5%, on top of last year's 4%. And a monthly pass from Surrey to Vancouver now costs over $200 a month, which can be 10% or more for a low-income worker's monthly budget. This council's response has been to do nothing while low-income riders are skipping job interviews and missing medical appointments, all because they can't afford bus fare. Your inaction is trapping people in a cycle of poverty. This is happening in a city that has the second highest per capita transit ridership in Canada. Yet we are consistently failing at making it usable for the people who need it most. Calgary has a low-income pass for adults, so does Halifax, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton. So why doesn't Vancouver? I want to remind Council that last year's feasibility study showed that a 25-a-month reduced fare pass for people making less than $40,000 a year demands only 0.04% of BC's provincial budget, and that's the high estimate. As a climate scientist, I know that we will not cut carbon emissions unless we give working people the means to use public funds. Reducing this financial barrier will save lives today and tomorrow. Motion one is simply asking you to think about the working people you have the responsibility to protect. Doing so will automatically protect the environment we all share. This feasibility study is a minimum viable ask. So please, I urge you all to vote yes on this motion. Thank you.