A transit initiative to help students financially has been passed.
A universal bus pass (U-pass) may not be feasible for George Brown College right now, but students can look forward to seeing some relief with their transit fees.
An ad hoc transit committee was formed during the Student Association of George Brown College’s (SAGBC) September meeting of the board of directors. The committee was created for the purpose of implementing a transit initiative for GBC students who currently pay $128.15 for a monthly student transit pass.
Within two months, the committee presented its findings and the way forward to the whole board during the Nov. 20 meeting.
The committee, after meeting with TTC and PRESTO, concluded that a U-Pass – which would require a minimum mandatory fee collection from every student – might not be suitable for GBC students.
U-passes are implemented in many post-secondary institutions around Ontario.
With a U-pass, students at an institution like Queen’s University pay as little as $122 over a 12-month period. Students at other institutions such as Brock University, Durham College, and Carleton University pay anywhere between $200 and $500.
In comparison, students in Toronto pay a total of $1,538 for a 12-month period if they purchase a TTC post-secondary student pass.
The committee presented a report which showed a tentative $80 monthly U-pass would not benefit all students at the college, therefore costs to students would outweigh the benefits.
“The ad hoc committee has decided not to pursue the implementation of a U-pass as it requires a referendum. It would apply an $80 plus mandatory fee for all students, and it likely wouldn’t benefit the majority of students. It’s going to incur greater fees on students unnecessarily,” said Max Davidson, acting director of communications and internal and member of the transit committee, at the meeting.
Based on these findings, the committee put forward a proposal for a PRESTO voucher program.The proposal was passed by the board in the same meeting.
This program will use excess revenue the SAGBC has to provide voucher codes to students to load onto their PRESTO cards.
The program targets 11 per cent of students in the winter and spring 2024 semesters, which is an estimated 2,800 and 1,000 students respectively.
Each of these students will be provided with up to two $25 vouchers, or $50 in one semester.
In addition to this, Davidson shared that the government of Ontario has promised Fare and Service Integration (FSI) by the end of 2023. This will help reduce costs between two regional transit systems and thus provide further relief to students traveling into Toronto from nearby regions.
However, the voucher program is not a long-term solution for the issue and the SAGBC hopes to do more work beyond this.
Davidson said, “It’s important to note that we can’t continually take money from the next budget to fund this initiative. And funding a program through excess revenue is not sustainable long term. You can’t just depend on having excess revenue year over year to be able to fund a program.”
He shared that the goal of this initiative is to bring immediate relief and plan future goals.
“Ultimately the two objectives that we have decided on as the ad hoc committee is one, to support students in the short term to be able to help with the cost of living and the cost of transit, especially since a lot of school classes have returned to in person learning. And the second point would be collecting data to really understand the needs of students and to be able to determine a longer-term solution,” Davidson added.
The board also approved an extension of the ad hoc committee until April 2024, so the committee can monitor the implementation of the voucher program.
While the initiative may only be able to reach so many students and provide so much support, it is a step in the right direction.
The new PRESTO voucher initiative and continued talks with public transportation providers such as TTC provide a hopeful transit future for students at GBC.
