City Council Votes to Maintain Current Edmonton Transit Fares – Edmonton
Edmonton city councillors voted unanimously to keep transit fares as they are now.
Wednesday’s vote came after Edmonton’s transit service presented a report that revealed a funding gap of about $10 million in the existing budget.
This shortfall is due to the increase in the number of people using the Ride Transit pass.
Several ideas were presented to city council on how to increase the fees. For seniors, the cost would have doubled, from $35 to $78 per month.
“Having access to public transportation is essential,” Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said, adding that is why the city council was hesitant to raise transit fares on Wednesday.
“Asking them to pay more at this point is not something we should be considering,” Sohi said.
Daniel Witte of Edmonton Transit Riders, a group that advocates for better public transit, said he is happy the fares will remain the same.
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“We didn’t expect to come out of this situation without unforeseen increases and without the administration trying to fill that gap from other parts of the budget,” Witte said.
Not raising rates means the city must find money elsewhere. The city council has challenged the administration to find one-time funding by reallocating the existing operating budget and keeping rates the same.
“In my opinion, there’s probably $10 million in the system that we can reallocate. Should we cut it or let it go? Absolutely, but we have to get back to the top priorities,” said councillor Aaron Paquette.
He added that he thought it was time to look at other ways to fund public transport.
“We could have a transit funding formula, like the Edmonton Police Service has,” Paquette said. “We could have dedicated funding for transit.”
According to Witte, this is unlikely to solve the problem.
“It’s great that we’re getting this one-off funding, but it’s important to remember that it’s only going to be a one-time thing,” he said.
“It will not be sustainable in the long term for the City of Edmonton to fund this program.”
The city administration will report on additional adjustments to the operating budget in the fall.
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