A pilot project is coming to Guelph in the new year which will see kids aged five to 12 able to use transit free of charge.
The decision came from a motion put on the floor by Mayor Cam Guthrie during the City of Guelph’s multi-year budget meeting on Thursday.
Guthrie said he talked to staff and they helped him with the motion on it and respects his councillors' decisions.
Coun. June Hofland said without a staff report, although she agrees it is a great idea, it is not the right time to bring these motions forward during a budget meeting.
She questioned if Gurthire had support from Guelph Transit for the initiative, or if they were solely helping in devising the motion.
Guthrie said they were not against it, rather helped set the date for March 1 instead of Jan. 1 due to the issues of attempting to start the pilot program at the start of the new year.
DCAO Colleen Clack-Bush said staff helped put the numbers together based on assumptions as the city does not track the exact amount of riders in the age bracket.
Transit staff did not bring the motion forward.
Hofland said she could not support the idea of free transit for kids as there are priorities the city is struggling to fund, and it is not an appropriate time to start another initiative that will be a part of the fare strategy.
“I just think the timing and his initiative can wait until we do our fare strategy coming I think next year,” said Hofland.
Coun. Mark MacKinnon said this should be done as a strategy and not a budgetary decision, but noted that with ridership having plummeted due to COVID-19 this is a great time to get people back onto transit.
“This budget that we’re passing tonight puts to rest any suggestion that this council is not fully behind transit given all the initiatives we are doing,” said MacKinnon.
The program comes with a cost of up to $125,000 in 2022.
The motion passed 7-6.
