Grand River Transit

[Bob_McBob]

I strongly support transit subsidies for low-income residents, but the new program is just an insult. According to the original staff report, around 43,000 residents would be eligible for ATP, but only 8,600 are expected to use it. Right off the bat that's a terrible uptake considering car ownership must be significantly lower in this income bracket, and it makes me think a lot of people can't even afford the subsidized rate.

Another thing ATP highlights is just how utterly pathetic the previous TRIP program for low-income residents was. The vast majority of expected ATP users were not enrolled in TRIP because the region made it so difficult. There were only 1,350 people using the program, with a waitlist of 2,150. So we've gone from a completely dysfunctional low-income transit program almost nobody could access to tossing the barest hint of breadcrumbs at poor people and cutting them off the moment they reach an incredibly low income threshold. Not only that, but staff were so concerned uptake might be higher than expected they recommended a staged rollout over multiple years so they could monitor it and adjust the program if necessary. So they literally don't even want most eligible residents to use ATP.

I note the region conducted a large study involving UW and various local groups like Lutherwood to evaluate the effect of this type of subsidy. The key recommendations appear to have largely been ignored in favour of minimizing the budget impact.

• Offer subsidized transit products that are reduced by an average of 48%. 
  
• Make multiple types of reduced-fare transit passes available to people living with low-income, including a product that costs as little as $20.
  
• Consider making lower-cost off-peak transit passes available to the general public.
  
• Develop a capacity for experimentation in the interests of acquiring knowledge and proactively shaping the future.
  
• Continue to work with local community support organizations in a common effort to make affordable transit a reality.
  

The amount the region is committing to this subsidy is literally 0.55% of the net operating budget for all transit services. This line in the staff report says it all: "One of the goals of the review was to ensure no increase to the net levy."