Compromise made on U-Pass rate

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

After eight months of bouncing between committees, post-secondary students finally have an answer as to how much their bus pass will cost in years to come.

And the amount is below what was originally proposed to councillors.

Under an amended schedule, the price of a U-Pass – which is given to all full-time students at UOIT, Durham College and Trent University’s Oshawa campus – will go up to $127 per term in the fall of 2017 and then to $135 in the fall of 2018.

This is below the increase originally passed by the finance and administration committee, which saw the price go up to $135 in the fall of 2017 and $150 in the fall of 2018.

The rate for the U-Pass, starting this fall, is $120 per term, with the price schedule marking an increase of approximately 12 per cent over two years. The originally proposed schedule marked an increase of 25 per cent over two years.

Clarington councillor Joe Neal, who proposed the amended schedule along with Pickering councillor Kevin Ashe, says the region needs to invest in the thousands of post-secondary students in Durham, as they are of a great benefit to the region as a whole.

“There’s a big, to me, social undercurrent to this whole discussion,” says Neal. “I see the students going by my office and I see them getting out in downtown Oshawa to go to (UOIT’s) Faculty of Education. I walk by them everyday. They’re not looking like they’re sitting on a ton of money.”

“I walk up and down there, and I look at what’s happening to some of the private businesses down there, and there’s a bit of a beacon of hope down there, and the students are buying stuff in the restaurants and so on.”

Regional chair Roger Anderson, however, said that the originally proposed increase was more than fair, and those against it were playing with the numbers to fit their agenda.

“The fact is transit is an expensive business, and it’s not getting any less expensive, and there isn’t anyone in this room that doesn’t want more service. And you aren’t going to get more service by offering free rides or cheaper rides,” he said to councillors.

“We’re talking $30 from 2016 to the summer of 2019. We’re talking $10 a semester, a dollar a week, or less. You can do the percentages, anyone can play with numbers and make any number sound good or sound bad.”

Jesse Cullen, the former student association president who delivered a delegation to councillors to turn down the original price schedule earlier in the day, says the new price schedule is a partial victory for students, but more can be done.

“Any increase at this point is unfair, inherently to students,” Cullen told The Oshawa Express shortly after the amended price schedule was passed.

“We’ve been fighting this since October. You have a bit of a shakeup when you challenge Roger Anderson’s position on something – it usually doesn’t go this long. We can take pride in that.”

While the new price schedule will still trigger a student referendum – any increase above the rate of inflation is subject to such a vote – Cullen says this lower increase rate will more than likely pass, keeping the U-Pass alive.

The vote passed narrowly at 13-12, with Nester Pidwerbecki and Bob Chapman being the two Oshawa councillors to vote against it, instead supporting the original price schedule.