City planning to reimburse passes

By Trevor Pillon

pill0015@algonquincollege.com

Don’t throw away your expired bus pass just yet. December transit passes will be valid for at least a month once the transit strike is resolved.

On Jan. 15, after two days of closed-door meetings, Ottawa city council approved a motion to encourage transit users to keep their monthly, semester and annual passes, valid in December, for use once the transit service resumes.

The move is intended as part of a larger strategy to entice riders back on the bus after the strike.

Coun. Bob Monette also suggested a number of other incentives, including free days and waiving the proposed April fare increase.

“There has been a lot of hardship on our residents,” he said. “People have had to purchase vehicles, people have had to rent cars, people have had to pay for carpooling and it’s been at the toughest time of year.” Meanwhile, the city estimates that it is saving about $3 million a week in wages, maintenance and fuel costs.

 “We don’t know how long the transit strike is going to take,” said Coun. Clive Doucet, warning against settling on a recovery strategy too soon, “that is going to influence the kind of recovery program we’re going to have.”

For those December pass holders who would prefer an immediate refund for the month, the city has authorized municipal Client Service Centres to begin processing refunds as of Jan. 20.

“All we are saying by doing this is that we want them [transit users] back,” said Coun. Monette, “the least we can do is reimburse them for the month of December.”

Regular and student monthly passes are eligible for a reimbursement for the entire month of December, as are student semester passes, adult annual passes, and regular and gold parking permits. Student annual passes will be reimbursed for every day of lost service until the buses resume.

“This is money that the people have already paid out and this is the money we didn’t provide service for,” said Coun. Shad Qadri, “I think it is only fair to those people their money be refunded as soon as possible.”