Councillor Nussbaum proposes transit fare freeze
Posted Dec 4, 2015 07:15:04 AM.
Last Updated Dec 4, 2015 08:10:30 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – A city councillor doesn’t want to raise transit fares during a time of construction disruptions.
As the transit commission passes a draft budget that calls for a 2.5 per cent fare increase, Tobi Nussbaim says he’ll bring forward a motion to freeze fares and increase the transit levy on urban tax bills instead.
Nussbaum says he’ll bring a motion forward next week, asking council to support the freeze.
Nussbaum says when LRT construction ramps up in January, 40 per cent of bus trips will likely see disruptions, and he doesn’t think the city should be asking people to pay more for the service.
He compares it to renovating a hotel, saying a hotel wouldn’t raise room prices while renovation work was going on.
A 2.5 per cent fare increase would bring in 2.2 million in revenue, so a freeze would mean the city would have to find that money somewhere else — and Nussbaum says that can be done by increasing the transit levy on urban tax bills.
Council votes on the 2016 budget, including the fare increase, December 9.
