U-Pass decision delayed
Price for bus pass for university, college students set to increase 25 per cent over two years; students call on region to freeze price
By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express
A decision on whether to increase the price university and college students pay for transit has been delayed for at least another month.
At the last meeting of the region’s transit executive committee, councillors voted to defer the report detailing a potential price increase to the transit advisory committee for comments before coming back for a vote in December.
According to the report, it is recommended that the price for the U-Pass, which is available for all full-time students at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Durham College and Trent University Durham, be increased to $120 for the Fall 2016 term, followed by an increase to $135 for the Summer 2017 term before going up to $150 for the Winter 2018 term.
Currently, students pay $103 per term.
The committee’s councillors heard from students representing the post-secondary institutions in the region who both called on the increase not to happen.
Jesse Cullen, the president of the Student Association at Durham College and UOIT, says that the pass is a great recruitment tool for the post-secondary institutions to bring in students to the region, generating economic boons for the area.
“UOIT, Trent (University) and Durham College bring a significant amount of economic activity to the Region of Durham, and it’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Cullen, sitting as a delegation at the meeting, told councillors. “In a time of economic uncertainty, in a technical recession…these U-passes are a tremendously effective recruitment tool for all three institutions to drive recruitment into the city.”
Cullen also said that many students will have a hard time affording the price increase, as many don’t have any income outside of student loans.
“This 30 extra dollars a (term) may not seem like much, but when you look at your OSAP…and that is grocery money. When OSAP gives you money, your tuition fees, your auxiliary fees are all taken out of your OSAP payment, and the U-Pass and different auxiliary expenses actually come out of your living expenses. That is money that we’d usually be using to pay rent, buy groceries,” he said, adding he and his partner both rely on OSAP payments for them and their young daughter. “The reality is that OSAP…doesn’t get you to the end of the day. The last month or so before your next OSAP installment comes, you are literally living hand to mouth.”