Negotiations begin to increase the price of U of G universal pass; referendum will determine outcome
Written by Nicole Elsasser
After the city called into question the U of G universal bus pass system during a budget review process, “feathers were ruffled” according to Central Student Association (CSA) local affairs commissioner, Galen Fick. Fick said, however, that the Guelph city council meeting on Dec. 15, a meeting where council voted to table the proposal and continue the universal pass, can be considered “a win” for those in favour of the universal pass.
The universal bus pass is a system that has been in place for University of Guelph students since 1994 and has seen all students pay for a mandatory bus pass in their student fees; this subsidizes the price of the passes overall. The budget discussion in question came as a result of the City of Guelph making cuts to community programs to compensate for a sizeable deficit in revenues. While the discussion of transit prices for student riders in the city was one item on a list of nearly one hundred proposed changes or cuts to community programs, U of G students and University officials were quick to question the thinking behind eliminating the universal bus pass system.
After the idea of changing the universal bus pass had been added to the city’s budget agenda, Ann Pappert, the Director of Community Services for the City of Guelph, told the Ontarion that the idea was about seeking equality for all full-time learners in the city. The price per month for high school and college students stands at $62, with U of G students paying the equivalent of $15 per month.
According to Galen Fick, due to the mandatory buy-in of the universal pass, the prices of each pass are not comparable.
“It’s not really fair to compare it to a non-universal system as apples to apples,” said Fick. “I think you can compare it to what are we benefiting from it and what are we paying for? If those things don’t line up, then we can reevaluate that …it’s essentially a social service that we all buy into, so we get it cheaper.”
Fick explained that the CSA will enter into negotiations with City of Guelph officials to increase the price that U of G students pay for their bus pass; he claims that the city is seeking an additional $400 to $470 thousand from those negotiations.
“The oneness is on [the CSA] to go into the negotiations and find some kind of common agreement. I’m not prepared accept arbitrary numbers just because they say ‘we need to get some more money,’” said Fick. “I need to have it justified…[but] I think it’s not necessarily unreasonable to say that student ridership has gone up or we have more express routes or whatever those sorts of things…I don’t think that that’s unreasonable to bring to the table.”
According to Fick, once a number has been agreed upon in the negotiations between the university and the city, the proposed increased price will become a referendum question for students to vote for in an election.
Fick explained that should the students reject the proposed increase in the referendum then the U of G would no longer have a universal bus pass.
“I consider it a win and I think that all the e-mails from students really played a really big part,” said Fick. “I feel like it was good to have that bulk of student pressure and I think that people at the city know how seriously students care about this and we weren’t going to take it likely to just have a proposal to eliminate what we have. I think it was really good to see that outpouring of support from students.”
