Some Centretown residents are not convinced the city’s summertime U-Pass proposal would benefit students in getting to school during a season when many choose to walk or bike.
City officials met with representatives of Ottawa’s post-secondary student unions earlier this month, suggesting the U-Pass would make transportation more affordable between May and August.
The summertime transit pass would cost $184.50 for the four-month period, the same price currently charged for each of the fall and winter semesters, according to Pat Scrimgeour, Ottawa’s manager of transit service, planning and reporting. The pass would apply to all full-time students enrolled in summer courses, he said via email.
Currently, full-time students at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and St. Paul University pay for a U-Pass in fall and winter. Scrimgeour says contracts with the universities would need to be amended if the proposal is accepted.
Scrimgeour says alternatives for reducing transportation costs were also offered to the student unions, including a year-round U-Pass for full-time university students, costing $553.50. The city is also offering a regular U-Pass for students at La Cité Collégiale and Algonquin College, which have not yet signed on for the fall and winter version of the program.
Anne-Marie Roy, president of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, says she had concerns over the summer U-Pass proposal.
“I feel like it would be unfair to students to hold a referendum and ask them if they want a summer U-Pass without having an alternative in place, and currently that’s the case,” Roy said.
For example, students can currently purchase a discounted monthly student bus pass for $78.75, however it is restricted to those 19 or younger, according to Scrimgeour.
Roy says this restriction disadvantages students 20 or older. She would prefer the city make the discounted bus pass accessible to all students regardless of age, providing the option of whether to purchase it or not.
This alternative is favoured because under the city’s proposal, all summer students would have to automatically pay for a summer U-Pass regardless of whether they plan to use it, Roy says.
“Students who are living in Centretown are not that far away from campus,” she says. “I do think there are students in Centretown who are going to be looking for affordable transit for the summer months. I also think too there are many students in Centretown who are going to choose to save their money and ride their bikes to go for a greener alternative and take advantage of the nice weather in the summer.”
But raising the age cap on the monthly student pass for students 20 or older to would result in an estimated revenue loss of at least $900,000 per year for the city, according to Scrimgeour.
Centretown resident Allison Corey, a third-year political science student at Carleton University, says a summer U-Pass would not have been worth it for her this past summer when she was taking courses full-time.
“I walked pretty much all the time because it’s pretty close,” Corey says, noting she lives close to the O-Train station located at Preston Street and Carling Avenue, a 20-minute walk from Carleton.
“I don’t know if I’d be in favour of having to spend the extra money when I didn’t really need it,” she says.