Mayors told low-income transit pass needed
Published 10:45 am Thursday, June 25, 2026
Many residents of Metro Vancouver are in desperate need of a low income transit pass, the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation was told at its meeting on June 25.
Chris Ng, an organizer of of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders, reminded the mayors that in order for people to have a job they need to be able to get to it.
“Given the cost of living and unemployment crisis that we’re facing I think that it’s very clear that we need relief,” Ng told the mayors. “One of the biggest contributors to economic mobility is actual physical mobility from point A to point B, because in order to have a job you need to physically be able to get to your job.”
Movement is a regional grass-roots non-profit organization advocating for better public transit.
“My own friends are struggling,” Ng told the mayors. “I know somebody in Richmond who has so little cash on hand that they can’t even go to job interviews. We went to a job fair last week and afterwards their compass card had single digits in dollars left.”
He also told the mayors about a young couple, formerly of Richmond, who want to settle down and marry eventually.
“The problem is that they still work in Richmond but now they live in PoCo for cheaper rents. So now they have to commute four hours across three zones every day, all on minimum wage.
“It doesn’t have to be this way – we can do something about this,” Ng told the mayors.
The council’s next meeting is set for September 24.