Written by Nicole Elsasser
After weeks of negotiations with Guelph Transit, Galen Fick, the CSA’s local affairs commissioner, has put a question forward to the CSA Board of Directors asking to increase the price students pay for their universal bus pass. Changes to the universal bus pass has continued to a contentious issue ever since the price and viability of the pass was placed under scrutiny by the city during a budget review process in December of last year. Since that initial discussion, negotiations have begun between the CSA and Guelph Transit. The CSA’s goal is to arrive at a fair price that students will pay per semester. The product of these negotiations is a carefully worded question purposing a price increase to the universal bus pass. It reads: “Do you support the continuation of the Universal Bus Pass (UPass) by raising the semester fee by $20.52 for Spring and Fall 2010 which represents an increase from $61.63 per semester to $82.15 per semester, followed by a $2.00 increase to $84.15 in Winter 2011 semester and a $2.00 increase to $86.15 for the spring/fall 2011 and winter semester 2012, representing a total increase of $24.52 per semester in the UPass over two years?
On Feb. 10 the CSA Board of Directors decided whether or not to support the proposed question and determine whether students will vote on the issue in a referendum.
At the time of press, the CSA Board of Directors had not yet reached a decision on the question. But according to Fick, it is unlikely that the board will deny students the ability to vote on this issue themselves.
“I can’t conceive of how they would not,” he said. “If the board votes to not have this referendum question go forward, they are essentially voting to eliminate the universal bus pass and not allowing students the democracy to not vote themselves.”