About 200 refugees received free bus passes in Sarnia this year through a city program.
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“It’s been working well,” engineering and operations general manager David Jackson said about the program that offers 12-month, free passes to refugees with proper documentation.
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But it’s also more generous than other programs in Ontario, staff said, in a report coming to council for deliberation Dec. 11.
The most generous elsewhere, among those reviewed by city staff, is Ottawa, with six months, the report says.
Closer by, London and Windsor direct refugees to subsidy programs for people with low income, it says.
Sarnia has similar subsidy programs, including one through the Inn of the Good Shepherd that discounts rates 20 per cent, and another through the County of Lambton, Jackson said.
Paring back to mirror Ottawa’s program at six months is recommended in 2024, he said.
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“Partly (so) those other (subsidy programs) can be utilized with this as well,” he said.
Keeping the free-pass program is valuable because it helps people new to the community establish themselves—and become familiar with transit—but it’s important not to miss out on revenue for the city, Jackson said.
A monthly pass costs $80 in 2023. Costs are poised to rise to $85 in 2024.
It’s also not a given that refugees would just pay for transit, or ever use the system at all, without the initial free access, Jackson said.
“This one is unique,” he said.
“The impact is increased ridership,” he added; “but the potential benefit is, when someone’s introduced to utilizing transit, that they would—after they get established—then be able to pay the regular fare and help contribute to the system.”
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Bus ridership for 2023 in the city, as of Nov. 29, was 1.5-million trips, he said.
That’s up from a total 1.32-million trips in 2022, and on pace to end somewhere around 1.7 million—Sarnia’s peak bus ridership in 2019before ridership tanked amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Road changes, including this Septemberhave been implemented since to address overcrowding on some routes, particularly to and from Lambton College, where passengers were sometimes being left behind at bus stops.
Offering free passes to refugees likely doesn’t exacerbate the overcrowding problem, partly because the times and routes refugees use likely don’t overlap with the times and routes used by college students, Jackson said.
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“We do have some capacity constraint issues, but we would think … these refugee passes likely don’t align with some of those peak hours,” he said.
Some refugees don’t use their passes at all, and some use them on a daily basis, he said.
Free passes are also available to veterans and children under 12.
The impetus for introducing the program was a notice of motion from Coun. Brian White in May 2022, to help the influx of people escaping Russia’s war in Ukraine, and other refugees.
“It’s just an opportunity to provide a warm welcome for folks who have been dealing with stuff that’s far beyond our imagination,” White said at the time.
Council, at the time also, asked staff to identify best practices and create a program.
The Dec. 11 report is the result, after trialing the 12-month version, Jackson said.
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