2. LIFE-TIME TRANSIT PASS FOR VETERANS LAISSEZ-PASSER DE TRANSPORT EN COMMUN À VIE
POUR LES ANCIENS COMBATTANTS |
That Council direct staff to prepare a budget
submission for the 2011 City of Ottawa Budget for approval that would provide
for free life-time transit passes for World War II and Korean War veterans aged
65 and older; and
(b) Para Transpo services.
Que le Conseil enjoigne le personnel de préparer une
soumission budgétaire en vue du budget 2011 de la Ville d’Ottawa aux fins d’une
approbation qui permettrait l’octroi de laissez-passer de transport en commun
gratuits à vie aux anciens combattants de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et de la
guerre de Corée âgés de 65 ans et plus; et
(b) Le service Para Transpo.
Documentation
1. Councillor Cullen’s report dated 3 May
2010 (ACS2010-CCS-TTC-0009).
2. Extract of Draft Minutes 45, Transit
Committee meeting of 10 May 2010
Submitted by/Soumis par : Alex Cullen,
Councillor/Conseiller
Bay
Ward/Quartier Baie (7)
Contact
Person/Personne ressource : Alex Cullen,
Councillor, Bay Ward / Conseiller, quartier Baie
(613)
580-2477, alex.cullen@ottawa.ca
SUBJECT:
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OBJET :
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LAISSEZ-PASSER DE TRANSPORT EN COMMUN À VIE POUR LES
ANCIENS COMBATTANTS |
That the
Transit Committee direct staff to prepare a budget submission for the 2011 City
of Ottawa Budget for approval that would provide for free life-time transit
passes for World War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older.
Que
le Comité du transport en commun enjoigne le personnel de préparer une
soumission budgétaire en vue du budget 2011 de la Ville d’Ottawa aux fins d’une
approbation qui permettrait l’octroi de laissez-passer de transport en commun
gratuits à vie aux anciens combattants de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et de la
guerre de Corée âgés de 65 ans et plus.
At the February 17,
2010 meeting of Transit Committee, Councillor Alex Cullen (Bay Ward) tabled the
following inquiry:
Grand River Transit (GRT), which
serves the Waterloo Region, provides a free life-time bus pass for World War II
and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older. What would be the expected number of
veterans in Ottawa that would be eligible for such a program here and what
would be the cost (assumming a 2011 start)?
Staff provided a response to
Councillor Cullen's inquiry at the April 21, 2010 meeting of Transit Committee
(see Document 1). In short, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs estimate
that there are some 6,000 World War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and
older resident in Ottawa.
OC Transpo estimates that, as the
average age of these veterans is in the mid-eighties (WWII vets average age is
87; for Korean War vets the average age is 85), some 10% of these would use
public transit (based on the 2005 Origin-Destination Survey results) and
consequently the estimated revenue loss by providing these free life-time
transit passes to these veterans is $250,000.
At the 21 April 2010 meeting
of Transit Committee, Councillor Cullen submitted the following Notice of
Motion, for consideration at a subsequent meeting:
WHEREAS recently the last surviving veteran from World
War I passed away;
AND WHEREAS it is important to recognize and honour
the contributions of our senior veterans from World War II and the Korean War
to the preservation of freedom in Canada;
AND WHEREAS the average age of such veterans in Ottawa
is 87 years of age (WWII) and 82 years of age (Korean War):
AND WHEREAS other municipalities (notably in Waterloo
Region) have recognized the contributions of such veterans by providing a
life-time transit pass free of charge to World War II and Korean War veterans
aged 65 and older;
AND WHEREAS it is estimated that the cost of providing
such a free life-time transit pass for veterans resident in Ottawa is $250,000;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Transit Committee direct
staff to prepare a budget submission for the 2011 City of Ottawa Budget for
approval that would provide for such free life-time transit passes for World
War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older.
With the recent passing away of the last surviving
Canadian veteran from World War I and the aging of our World War II and Korean
War veterans (now in their eighties) it is important to recognize and honour
the contribution of our senior veterans from World War II and the Korean War to
the preservation of our freedoms in Canada. Other municipalities (most notable
the Region of Waterloo in Ontario) have taken this step by providing free
life-time bus passes for their WWII and Korean War veterans.
As the City of Ottawa is the nation's capital where
the Department of National Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs are
headquartered, it would be appropriate to recognize the contributions WWII and
Korean War veterans have made to our country through providing free life-time
transit passes to those resident in Ottawa. OC Transpo's
overall budget (2010) is over $330 million, and as there would be a relatively
small number (an estimated 600 such veterans) who could use such transit passes
the cost estimate for this program - $250,000 - is quite modest.
OC Transpo currently provides Seniors'
Transit Passes at $36 a month for those aged 65 and older, plus seniors (age 65
and older) ride free on OC Transpo on Wednesdays.
This is a
Councillor-led initiative, which has received wide-spread public attention and
favour.
Infrastructure Services
and Committee Sustainability – Transit Services
Staff supports the recommendation and will
prepare a budget submission for the 2011 City of Ottawa Budget.
This is a City-wide
initiative.
There
are no legal/risk management impediments to the implementation of this Report’s
recommendation.
This initiative is
consistent with improving accessibility to public transit by seniors.
OC Transpo staff have estimated the cost of
implementing a free life-time transit pass for WWII and Korean War veterans
(resident in Ottawa aged 65 and older) to be $250,000.
The
$250,000 revenue foregone from this initiative will be a pressure for the
2011and future transit committee budgets.
The impact will likely be reduced over a period of years.
Document 1 - Response
to Inquiry No. TTC-03-10 - Cullen - Life-time Transit Pass for Veterans
If the recommendation
of this report is approved, City staff will provide a budget submission
regarding free life-time transit passes for WWII and Korean War veterans
(resident in Ottawa aged 65 and older) for Transit Committee and City Council
approval as part of the 2011 City budget process.
DOCUMENT 1
Council Member Inquiry/Motion Form Demande
de renseignements d’un membre du Conseil /Formulaire de motion |
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From/Exp.: Councillor
Cullen |
Date: 17 February 2010 |
File/Dossier
: |
To/Dest. : Steve
Box, Manager, Policy Coordination & Outreach, CMO
|
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Subject/Objet
: Inquiry No.
TTC-03-10 – Cullen – Life-time Transit Pass for Veterans |
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Inquiry/Demande de renseignements : From the
Transit Committee meeting of 17 February 2010: Grand
River Transit (GRT), which serves the Waterloo Region, provides a free
life-time bus pass for World War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and
older. What would be the expected
number of veterans in Ottawa that would be eligible for such a program here
and what would be the cost (assuming a 2011 start)? |
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Response/Réponse |
For
the purpose of this response Transit Services assumed a Veteran’s Transit Pass
would have the following eligibility requirements (as stated above) - World War
II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older.
Transit
Services researched the best practices of a number of major Canadian cities to
determine options for providing additional free service for Veterans. Those options include:
Edmonton - Donate-a-Ride Program
Donate-a-Ride is a fundraising program designed to
provide transit tickets to Veterans.
It is a partnership between private business, Transit
Services and the City’s social service agencies.
In Edmonton’s case, the program is broader in scope,
supporting seniors, low-income individuals and single parents who are clients
of the participating social service agencies. The disbursement of the tickets
is handled through a partnership with United Way of the Alberta Capital
Region.
Grand
River Transit (Waterloo) – Free Veterans Pass
Grand
River Transit provides free passes to 640 Veterans, which includes free service
within the Accessibility Transit Program.
Guelph
– Free Veterans Pass
Similar
to Grand River; however, Guelph’s program is for conventional transit only -
does not provide free Accessibility Transit.
Toronto
– Free Veterans Pass (External Funding)
The
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has proposed this type of pass, but its
implementation is pending adequate funding by an external source to overcome
the revenue shortfall that would result.
Sponsorship Matching Programs
In
order to facilitate the implementation of a free Veterans Transit Pass, Transit
Services could work with appropriate charitable groups or social service
agencies to set up a matching program (with an upper limit cap). Veterans groups – through charitable groups
or social service agencies - could raise funds from sponsors to purchase bus
tickets for their members. In conjunction, Transit Services would provide an
additional amount of tickets to match the sponsorship.
Para Transpo Service
The
business model for providing free Veterans transit service is varied from city
to city, especially regarding the use of accessibility transit (Para).
For
Ottawa’s Para Transpo, the issue of providing free service to Veterans is one
of supply and demand. The costs of
operating Para would remain steady, as there are a finite number of trips
available through the service. Revenue
would decrease marginally as Veterans travelling for free could replace paying
customers.
However,
the larger issue is that demand for the service would increase, and, because
there are a limited number of trips, pressure would be added to the service,
which could potentially result in diminished trip availability.
City of Ottawa Estimates
Within
the Ottawa boundary, the approximate number of World War II and Korean War
veterans provided by Department of Veterans Affairs is 6,000. Transit-use data, specific to veterans that
are residents of Ottawa, is not available.
Based
on the 2005 Origin-Destination survey results, it is estimated that 10% of all
people age 75 or older use transit. The majority of WWII and Korean War
veterans fall within this age category. The Origin-Destination survey data also
indicates that 82% of those people 75 or older who use conventional transit
have a transit pass, and the remainder use cash or tickets. It is estimated
that if a Veteran’s Pass is offered for conventional transit only, the revenue
loss would be approximately $250,000 - assuming there are 600 veterans (10% of
6,000) that are transit users; ticket users make 12 trips per month; and cash users
make 8 trips per month. However, if the pass is accepted as a regular Senior
Pass on Para Transpo, the revenue loss will increase.
The
calculations provided only indicate the revenue impact. These figures do not include additional
expenditures such as developing and maintaining a process to identify and
confirm eligibility, designing a new photo identification card and pass, and
operating the program.
Conclusion
From
an administrative perspective, the Donate-A-Ride program would appear to be the
most appropriate model to provide additional transit service for our Veterans,
since it would not require a new type of fare media or an eligibility
confirmation process. It would likely only require the purchase and
distribution of transit tickets by a charitable organization such as the Royal
Canadian Legion or United Way, for example.
Currently,
Transit Services does provide a number of programs that allow Veterans access
to transit at a reduced cost. The
average age of World War II veterans (87) and Korean War veterans (82) places
them within Transit Services eligibility for senior’s programs and
initiatives.
Those
programs include:
LIFE-TIME
TRANSIT PASS FOR VETERANS
LAISSEZ-PASSER DE
TRANSPORT EN COMMUN À VIE POUR LES ANCIENS COMBATTANTS
ACS2010-CCS-TTC-0009 CITY WIDE/À L'ÉCHELLE DE LA VILLE
As this was his report, Councillor Cullen ceded the
Chair to Councillor Wilkinson, the Committee’s Vice Chair.
Councillor Cullen introduced the item by noting that
at the last meeting, Committee had received the response to an inquiry with
respect to life-time transit passes for veterans. He explained this matter had come to him
through members of the community who brought to his attention the fact that
Grand River Transit, which service the Region of Waterloo, provided a free life-time
bus pass for World War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older. He asked what it would take to do so in
Ottawa. Committee received the response
to his inquiry and he then filed a Notice of Motion. He remarked that the motion called for staff
to prepare a budget submission for the 2011 City of Ottawa budget process. He advised that there were approximately
6,000 such veterans living in the City of Ottawa and staff had estimated the
cost would be around $250,000. He
reported having been asked whether he considered expanding this to include all
Canadian veterans aged 65 and older who had served in areas of conflict. He outlined his reasons as follows:
·
He had been
working from a model that had proven successful in another jurisdiction;
·
What he proposed
was a manageable cost and expanding it could be considerably more expensive;
and
·
Once a program
was established, subsequent councils could expand it.
Councillor Legendre introduced an amending motion
asking for the program to be expanded to veterans having served in other war
zones, in addition to World War II and Korea, and to include Para Transpo
services.
Ms. Kit McKay
indicated her father was an 87-year old World War II veteran living in Guelph
and that he enjoyed a life-time bus pass and life-time parking. She hoped that when the logistics, parameters
and administration of this proposal were being considered, that Council would
also consider the persons affected. She
reminded members that these were the men and women who had fought for the
freedom of Canadians. She submitted that
Canadians did a wonderful job of remembering them on November 11th. She felt it was important to remember them on
a day-to-day basis. She advised that her
father’s bus pass, parking pass and license plate each had a poppy. She felt this would be a wonderful way to
recognize and remember veterans so they would realize that Canadians would not
forget.
Councillor Harder asked how long Guelph had been
offering this honour and service. Ms.
McKay believed it had started in 2005 or 2006.
She indicated her father had gone down to City Hall and within 5
minutes, he had a bus pass with his photo and a poppy on it.
Responding to questions from Councillor Legendre, Ms.
McKay confirmed that she had heard this amending motion and expressed her
agreement with Councillor Cullen’s position that if it was opened too widely,
it might scare people off and risk having the program defeated. She indicated the cities that did have such
programs had parameters in terms of the veterans to which it was limited. In conclusion, she hoped the program would be
approved in whatever way it could.
Councillor Legendre maintained that even with his
amending motion, the over 65 criteria would still apply. Therefore, he did not believe there would be
a significant budget impact to scare people off. Further, he felt the principle was good for
all.
Mr. Robert Butt, Royal Canadian Legion, expressed the Legion’s support for this
initiative. He felt World War II and
Korean veterans residing in this City deserved to travel free on the buses and
trains of the capital of Canada, particularly as they had reached old age. However, he was concerned about the other
veterans, explaining that the Legion considered all those who had served in the
military forces of this country to be veterans.
He noted that the motion only referred to World War II and Korean
veterans aged 65 and older and submitted that in a few years, there would be
nobody left who qualified for these passes.
He indicated the Legion would be pleased if the motion included all
veterans aged 65 and older, therefore he supported Councillor Legendre’s
amendment.
Councillor Legendre noted the effect of the motion was
not that veterans over 65 would receive a free pass. The effect was that a report would go to
Council for the budget, at which point the decision would be made for the 2011
budget. Mr. Mercier responded
affirmatively.
Councillor Legendre maintained that his amending
motion would not change this context.
However, additional information would be provided in terms of the
additional impact of expanding the program.
In terms of the other conflicts alluded to in his amending motion, he
presumed there were very few veterans who would meet the 65 year age
requirement at this time. He submitted
they come on stream as World War II and Korean veterans disappeared. Therefore, he did not see that his motion
would have a huge budget impact in any one year. He hoped this would lessen h is colleagues’
anxiety and he re-iterated that if a gesture of this sort was worth doing, then
it was worth getting it right the first time.
Councillor Cullen asked that Councillor Legendre’s
amendment be divided for voting. He
stated that he would support including Para Transpo services in order to
eliminate the requirement for the ticket top-up. He advised that he had struggled with the
question of whether or not to include veterans from other conflicts in his
motion and he re-iterated his reasons for not doing so. However, he believed Councillor Legendre was
correct in that the age requirement would limit the budget impact in any given
year and that it was it was hard to differentiate between the contribution of
veterans from World War II and the Korean War and those of any other veteran
having been in a conflict zone to support peace keeping or to support
preserving Canadians’ freedoms. He felt
Mr. Butt had stated it very well.
Therefore, he indicated he would support the amendments. In closing, he acknowledged the presence of
Mr. Brian McGill, who had brought this matter to his attention and
independently contacted the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs to find out how many
World War II and Korean veterans were living in Ottawa. He also drew Committee’s attention to the
motion passed by the Seniors’ Advisory Committee in
support of this initiative, a copy of which is held on file with the City
Clerk.
Councillor Thompson indicated he would support
Councillor Legendre’s amendments as he felt it was important to do this. He talked about travelling to the United
States, noting that in their airports, they had special lounges for their
military personnel. He re-iterated that
it was important to support veterans and he felt this was a small way of
thanking them.
Responding to a question from Councillor Desroches
with respect to the cost estimate, Ms. Vicky Kyriaco-Wilson,
Manager of Transit Marketing and Customer Service, indicated staff had
contacted the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs to find out the number of
individuals who would qualify for the proposed veterans’ pass. She then explained the methodology used to
determine the number of veterans would likely use such a pass in order to come
up with the estimated financial impact.
Councillor Desroches felt this was a reasonable
methodology. However, he believed the
estimate was high because, based on his observations,
very few seniors were current pass holders as most tended to use their
vehicles.
Councillor Wilkinson referenced Councillor Legendre’s
amendments and questioned the definition of “other war zones” and whether the
program should distinguish between combat and peace-keeping missions. She felt these should be listed. Otherwise all former military personnel aged
65 or older would be eligible for the pass, which could have a significant
budgetary impact.
Councillor Legendre indicated he had considered this
but he had difficulty defining war zones.
He was mindful that Canadian soldiers served in various areas, in a
peace-keeping role, and that they too were at times exposed to danger. He did not want to leave out people who had
served in such capacities. Therefore, he
was not keen on trying to itemize the various conflict zones.
Councillor Wilkinson asked that, if the motion was
approved, staff look at identifying criteria in terms of the different conflict
zones where the Canadian military had been involved in various capacities.
Committee voted on recommendations (a) and (b)
separately.
Moved by Councillor J. Legendre
WHEREAS Transit Committee supports the principle of
recognizing and honouring the contributions of our military service veterans to
the preservations of our freedoms; and,
WHEREAS veterans will sometimes be left with permanent
disabilities as a result of their service,
CARRIED
(b)
that the
Veteran’s Pass include Para Transpo services.
CARRIED
Committee then voted on the item as amended.
That the
Transit Committee direct staff to prepare a budget submission for the 2011 City
of Ottawa Budget for approval that would provide for free life-time transit
passes for World War II and Korean War veterans aged 65 and older; and
(b)
Para Transpo services.
CARRIED
as amended