Low Income Transit Pass Motion

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hi, I'm calling. I'm a Vancouver resident urging you to support this motion for a low-income transit pass. Expanding access to public transit is win-win-win public policy. I think this is really about who has the right to the city. On July 1st, fares will go up again to $3.50 for a one-zone ticket. But for a three-zone monthly pass, that is going to be now $211, up from $201. For a Vancouver resident... who say worked in Surrey, that would represent an annual cost just to get to and from work of $2,500. And for someone earning the $18 an hour, $18.25 minimum wage for 40 hours per week, that would represent over 6% of their annual income. This is a punitive mobility tax on the working class. A low income pass for that worker would reduce their cost by over $2,000 per year. And for many others, this would make the difference between being able to buy groceries, or not. So it's a bare minimum, and I actually think the low-income pass could be expanded. If we extended eligibility for the $25 a month pass to 13- to 18-year-olds who currently pay concession rates, which will go up to $67 a month as of July 1st, It would give the right to the city to kids from working class and poor families and save parents of teenagers in Vancouver, regardless of household income, many hundreds of dollars a year. It would also create lifelong transit users, which is what we're trying to do. The truth is we need to expand fare-free public transit because it supports the public good. Accessible and fast public transit makes life more affordable. It makes our lives better and more convenient while reducing pollution. And including pollution that accelerates global warming. For those who only drive, investing in public transit makes your life better, too, by reducing congestion. So it's win-win-win policy. We need to stop nickel and diming the working class. And we need to finally properly tax the ultra-wealthy so we can invest in vital public services like fast and free or at least more affordable public transit. This month, FIFA officials, media, and the fans who can afford a ticket will be descending on the city. As spelled out in the city's contract with FIFA, holders of FIFA accreditation passes will also have access to fare-free public transit to and from games and celebration venues. Unfortunately, this council shot down a fare-free bus pilot proposed earlier this year, but it turns out that FIFA may be running a sort of fare-free transit pilot this month. So the right to the city must include those whose exploited labor fuels the accumulation of vast fortunes in this wealthy city. So I urge you to support a low-income transit pass and to advocate to the province and TransLink to make the funding possible. This is the least you can do. Please pass this motion. Thank you.

This is the least you can do. Please pass this motion. Thank you. Hello, is there any way that I can speak?

Hello, yes.

Yes, I would like to speak.

Thank you.

Okay, if I may speak.

Oh, okay. Or leave the computer. Yes, absolutely. Okay.

All right. Although I am a strong supporter of public transit, I'm compelled to speak against the resolution in its present form. To associate public transit with the impoverished, with the great mass of our cities, helpless and homeless, is the wrong way forward. TransLink should be the proud means of local travel for everyone who wishes to demonstrate awareness of climate change and its consequences. Being wealthy enough to drive a car should not be the measure of an enlightened citizen. I cringe when I see parents driving even their teenagers to school and fetching them later. I cringe again when I see people who can barely walk with the aid of a cane or other device emerge slowly from the driver's seat. And I think of how slowly their foot would reach the brake if a child were suddenly to chase a ball onto the street. I cannot but contrast this with what I've had the privilege of seeing in other countries where children under the age of 18 and all seniors travel free on public transit. I plead with you today to make transit the destination of those who care about their city and its air quality. To take TransLink should be a source of pride and not an admission that one has failed economically and has been unable to climb what is called the ladder of success. Thank you.

Thank you so much. My name is Lennox Johnston-Yu. I am a resident of Vancouver, and I am in support of this motion. I would like to, as my rationale, do some simple math with you. As we know, a three-zone monthly transit pass for an adult in Vancouver currently costs $201.55. With the projected increase that would come this July, that would come up to $211.65. Now, I work a job part-time as my only source of income. I have been a university student for the past four years, some of which I worked this job during, and have just recently graduated, losing access to the U-Pass. I take public transit to this job every shift and back home afterwards upwards of three times a week on a good week. Last month, I made $1,115.85. That means that the monthly three-zone transit pass, which I require to get to my job, makes up 19% of my monthly income. My rent makes up 71% of my income. 19 plus 71 is 90. 90% of all the money I have goes only to continuing to not be unhoused. The other $10 I have for everything else. That is $111. I'm allotted less money per month to feed myself than I spend to take the train. I won't waste your time by talking about the current grocery prices, but I'm sure you're all well aware that $111 is pennies at the grocery store right now. I urge you for a moment to think about how much money you make monthly. Ballpark it if you aren't exactly sure. Now imagine if you couldn't use 90% of it. Imagine how small your life would be, how hard it would be to even feed yourself. This is the reality that me and dozens of my peers face every single day. We're not the nebulous masses. We are real people who live in Vancouver. If the low-income transit pass was made available to me, the 19% that the current monthly transit pass takes up from my income would drop to only 2.5%. The 90% of my income that I spend on just not sleeping outdoors would drop to 73.5%. The 10% of my income, that $111, becomes 26.5%, which is $295. That's money for groceries, for dentist appointments, for necessary medication, phone bills, birthday gifts, tips for the waiter. loses more money on paying and training new transit cops to enforce the ever-tightening rules than it would if I were able to pay $25 a month instead of $211. So even from a simple math point of view, TransLink and the city of Vancouver still saves more money if I'm allowed to live instead of just survive. That extra $180 a month that I would get to keep, that's life-saving money. Maybe not for you, but for a lot of us. Thank you for your time.

Hi, City Council. I want to grab the motions for the transit and also the housing. I sometimes I fear that when I get on the bus, I'm going to be mocked by a bus driver and saying, do you have the fare or anything like that? Yes, I'm on a disability, but you know, I just really, I don't know. I'm just, just stuck for words right now. I'm just, it's unfair. It's unfair for anybody, any child, any mother. It's unfair that the, transit system that think they're working for themselves, but they're working for the public. And, you know, if people are disability or anything like that, running to the bus, but the bus people don't have time to wait for the average elderly person or somebody that's in the walker or anything like that. It's on the stop. It's got to go. Go, go, go, go, go. They're running on their time, not on our time. Why is that? You know, we got, it's very hard. Rent's hard. You know, I'm on a disability. It's very hard. BC Housing has to change. The whole system has to change for anything to get going.

You know, if we're stuck on stop, one, everything, and we're going in reverse, we got to go forward. We can't go in reverse. Reverse gives you nothing. That's all I have to say. Thank you for hearing me.

Hello.

Okay. So, yeah, I'm a Vancouver resident, and I support this motion. First, I do just want to thank everyone for listening to us speak. I'm so sorry. Many of us on the phone. I would be there in person, but I'd actually rather not spend $6 on transit to and from City Hall, unfortunately. So thanks for listening to us all on the phone and accommodating all of those hiccups that we might be able to change if we got this motion passed. Not only do people like myself and so many others deserve to be able to afford transit in this city, but also because of the people I know, the people I see. I know that so many people, if they could afford, they'd pay for their transit instead of skipping fares and still riding. So it seems to me like if we could get this motion passed, it would just be that more people would actually be paying, you know? Wherever this money ends up getting directed, we just have more people actually putting their money forward instead of writing without paying it. In my experience and what I see, it doesn't necessarily mean... more people paying less money, but it would actually just mean more people paying for the transit that they're already using. So it seems to me like this would be, you know, a win-win for everyone. And yeah, I hope that all the councillors can seriously consider passing this motion because it would be really amazing for so many of us in the city to just be able to, you know, get around and actually experience the city in an affordable way. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Hello, can you hear me?

This is Margie.

Okay, thank you. Hi, Mayor and Council. I apologize for the frames in the background, but my name is Margie Sanderson. I'm the Director of Organizing at Vision Zero Vancouver. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I'm calling to support this motion. I want to speak to, yesterday at Council, Councillor Kirby Young was asking about how the city can reduce congestion and, like, what can the city be doing to reduce traffic congestion for drivers and making it easy for people to get around.

means other than a car is really vital to this. We know there's simply not enough space in the city for all of us to drive. We don't have the road space for it. So if you want to drive and you want less traffic, the quickest way to get us there is to get other people out of their cars voluntarily via programs exactly like this, making transit more affordable, making it easier for more people to make this choice more of the time. Right now, especially with fares rising,

family member, multiple adults, or teenage children. The costs can be pretty high and it's out of reach for some people. So I think that this motion is a very straightforward and small step to get us towards making transit more accessible for all. And I hope that council will support it. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you so much. And I apologize so much for missing my time earlier. That's my bad. My name is Prabh Deol. I am a resident of... Vancouver. I'm also a homeowner in Vancouver. I've lived here since 2015, and I am fully in support of a low-income transit pass for folks who are making less than $40,000 a year in this city. Through my work at Reframing South Vancouver at South Vancouver Neighborhood House before I was let go due to funding cuts, I found that so many folks who accessed our programs at the Neighborhood House were low-income earners. However, it wasn't because these folks weren't working hard. It's just that they were working many different gigs and trying to string together enough income to support their families, to support their parents, to support folks back home in their home countries, while still only making low incomes here in the city. And on top of all that, they were most often accessing transit and paying full price to go to and fro from their jobs. using the bus and the SkyTrain. And so, therefore, I truly believe that providing a low-income transit pass is so beneficial to people who are trying to just survive in the city and trying to economically ascend so that they can be more comfortable, so that they don't have to live paycheck to paycheck, so that they don't have to live precariously. These are the folks who are cleaning our homes. They are serving us in restaurants. They are raising our children they are uh building our developments like these are the folks who do so much of the essential work that's required for the rest of us especially for white collar workers to sit and think and do the larger planning work and so it only makes sense that we provide a low-income transit class so that they also can have an equal opportunity to make more money in the future uh and economically ascend um yeah and as well like when i was a student in at ubc like it was so important for me to have access to a low uh what do you call it an accessible transit pass that's offered through the university but then once i was out of university and then i was just um trying to find a job, trying to get from here and there. And I didn't qualify for the U-Pass any longer. I really did struggle trying to move around the city paying regular rates, even though I was someone who was university educated. I just was still in the process of like making a career.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Caitlin Stockwell. I'm a Vancouver resident, a transit user, and I'm speaking in support of this motion to explore options and advocate for low-income transit paths for Vancouverites. Access to transit shouldn't be a luxury. It's how people get to work, access education, attend medical appointments, visit family, and participate in community life. No one should be denied transit because they can't afford it. However, despite being one of the most expensive cities to live in, Vancouver is the only major Canadian city without a discounted transit program for low-income youth and working-age adults. Cities like Kamloops, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Halifax offer discount paths for low-income residents. In Edmonton, the Ride Transit program is funded through a partnership between the City of Edmonton and the Government of Alberta and offers a reduced monthly pass starting at $35 to low-income residents. Vancouver has previous experience stepping up to the plate to address transit accessibility and inequities. In 2019, the city launched a one-year reduced fare transit pilot to provide free or discounted transit to up to 100 low-income residents. The pilot program was a success and showed an increase in use of transit by the participants and increased participants' quality of life. When transit is more affordable, more people use it. Increased ridership helps support the viability of our transit system and reduces emissions and congestion. It also helps clear the roads for people who do need cars and emergency vehicles. This is a timely motion because on July 1st, transit users will see a 5% fare hike. This will add approximately $120 per person each year for those purchasing transit passes. I encourage Council to support this motion and to advocate for affordable transit options for low-income residents in Vancouver and outside of Vancouver. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Chair. Actually, Councillor Maloney just sort of, she used the word Metro Vancouver when she just spoke right now, so I've put forward an amendment that sort of addresses that.