Kari Glynes Elliott, co-founder of Ottawa Transit Riders, remembers one particularly memorable conversation with frustrated commuters.
A family of Syrian refugees “living on the poverty line” approached her advocacy group after purchasing a second-hand car “because they couldn’t trust the transit system,” she said.
As Glynes Elliott recalls it, one of the family members, a senior, told her, “I can no longer live here with this transit.”
That sentiment is shared by many, she says. Ottawa residents have been paying more to board OC Transpo buses and the O-Train since the city’s latest budget came into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Fares for adult passengers increased from $3.80 in 2024 to $4.00 in 2025, and senior fares increased from $2.90 to $3.20 over that same period.
The fare hikes come at a time when the federal government is giving the city a $180 million boost, which the city intends to use for operating costs such as wages, training and maintenance.
During the current provincial election campaign, the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals are promising to upload Ottawa transit operations. The PCs want to hand Ottawa transit over to the provincial corporation Metrolinx while the Liberals are not saying who would run the system. The NDP is proposing a 50/50 cost sharing.
“A lot of our members are unhappy about the fare increases,” Glynes Elliott said. “And they’ll talk about how much it affects their lives.”
As Ottawa’s fares rise, transit cost increases across Ontario continue to outpace the inflation of average consumer prices, a Capital Current analysis of Statistics Canada data shows.
Alex Cullen, former chair of Ottawa’s transit commission, says the problem is especially concentrated across the city. He attributes the capital’s transit issues and fare hikes to declining ridership.
According to Ottawa’s 2025 city budget, transit operations are projected to run a $120 million deficit this year.
“Since 2010, fare increases have happened nearly every year at rates faster than inflation,” said Cullen, who added the city “lost riders despite population growth and despite employment growth” during that same period.
“When you lose riders, you lose revenue,” he said.
Alongside individual fare hikes, the 2025 budget increased several long-term pass prices. Seniors' monthly passes increased roughly 16 per cent to $58.25 on Feb. 1, while a hike for post-secondary student passes is still under negotiation.
Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, the current transit commission chair, said most riders travel on discounted fares. The average fare paid by riders last year was $2.16, well below the standard adult fare of $3.80.
Actual earnings from fares, as a result, are “nowhere close to what we have targeted,” Gower said.
Gower also agreed with Cullen’s analysis of decreasing ridership.
“You would have assumed year after year that ridership would have grown organically with population growth, but we’re still behind [pre-COVID-19] numbers,” said Gower.
“We think that’s part of what’s contributing overall to lower revenue from riders,” he added.
Gower said increasing fares to compensate for revenue losses from low ridership has limitations.
Fares cover almost 34 per cent of OC Transpo’s operating costs, Gower said. He said the city aims to increase that proportion to 55 per cent.
“To get there [by] raising fares is going to create an unaffordable transit system,” he said. “We’re hitting a ceiling as to what is fair to ask riders to pay.”
Echoing Cullen’s and Gower’s views, Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh says the city should avoid relying on fares for revenue.
“Funding should come from other levels of government helping us, as has been done in the past,” said Kavanagh.
Kavanagh’s calls for provincial and federal support come at a time when Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s ‘Fairness for Ottawa’ campaign, which requests direct support from both levels of government, recently received unanimous support at city council.
“It's time for the federal and provincial governments to recognize the scope of the [financial] crisis in our city. And to recognize that we didn’t create this mess,” the mayor’s website reads.
While the federal government has pledged millions to help maintain OC Transpo’s rolling stock, and while the next provincial government looks ready to help, Kavanagh says sustained funding is needed.
“We do need a steadier stream, and we do need help,” she said.
