{"id":333061,"date":"2025-12-08T20:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333061\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T20:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T20:10:07","slug":"city-budget-council-oks-one-day-a-month-of-free-transit-for-sudbury-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/333061\/","title":{"rendered":"City budget: Council OKs one day a month of free transit for Sudbury seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four service-level increases were approved for GOVA Transit during 2026 budget deliberations, with amendments to increase GOVA Route 106, hiring an additional driver certification instructor and adding fixed transit service to Villa St. Gabriel also passing<\/p>\n

Greater Sudbury seniors aged 65 years and older will have free access to GOVA Transit buses during the first Tuesday of every month, beginning Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

A 9-4 vote of city council approved the program, at a net annual cost increase of $24,117, during 2026 budget deliberations earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The program was championed by Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labb\u00e9e, who also pushed for a prior effort which saw seniors receive free bus rides during Tuesdays in June<\/a>. The business case approved this week added eight free GOVA Transit days to the mix and shifted them all to the first Tuesday of every month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reasoning for the first Tuesday of every month as an extra pilot was to coincide with the end of the month, beginning of the month, when seniors typically get their pensions,\u201d Labb\u00e9e said, adding that businesses also typically provide seniors discounts on Tuesdays.<\/p>\n

The goal is to help get seniors out of the house to enjoy the day out in the community, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to have it every Tuesday throughout the year, but I\u2019m mindful of budgets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Expanding it to every Tuesday would result in a net annual cost increase of $144,704.<\/p>\n

Just prior to the vote, meeting chair and Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh took a moment to express her opposition to the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s a small amount of money, but it\u2019s a principle of blanket subsidies to an age group, just because you\u2019re over 65,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although she said \u201cwe absolutely want to help people,\u201d those aged 65 years of age and older are not necessarily in need, and the city already subsidizes transit by approximately $22 million.<\/p>\n

She pointed to a Nanos Poll from last month<\/a> which notes Canadians 55 years of age and younger are four times more likely to skip bills to pay for groceries than those who are older.<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada flags Canadians aged 65 and older as the least-impoverished age group in the nation.<\/p>\n

Using 2021 rates, 4.7 per cent of Canadians aged 65 and older were in poverty. The poverty rate was 14 per cent among people aged 18 to 24, 7.9 per cent among those aged 25 to 54, and nine per cent for adults aged 55 to 64. It drops at 65 due to pensions and Guaranteed Income Supplements.<\/p>\n

GOVA Transit also already offers seniors certain discounts.<\/p>\n

Seniors (ages 65 and older) and disability pensioners pay $15 for a six-ride card and $56 for a 31-day pass, where the adult rate is $20 for a six-ride card and $100.50 for a 31-day pass.<\/p>\n

One-ride cash fares ($4) and day passes ($11.50) are the same price across the board (children four and younger are free).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that seniors who typically have a month-long pass or seniors in a different economic demographic will take advantage of this,\u201d Labb\u00e9e said.<\/p>\n

All 13 members were available for the vote, with McIntosh joined by Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann and Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant in voting no.<\/p>\n

With the balance voting yes, the motion passed.<\/p>\n

The other GOVA Transit-related business cases to pass included:<\/p>\n


\n\tIncrease service level to GOVA Route 106: This extra service route includes a westward jaunt through Val Caron and was championed<\/a> by Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent. It started as a pilot project this year. The business case notes, \u201cBy facilitating reliable travel to and from employment locations, the pilot has demonstrated measurable success \u2014 including an 11 per cent increase in ridership and a 17 per cent improvement in on-time performance, reaching 92 per cent.\u201d This represents a boost of 16 to 17 new passengers per day. This boost added $32,175 onto the tax levy.
\n\tHire an additional driver certification instructor: This role will fill an annual training shortfall of approximately 1,143 hours per year, which city Transit Services director Brendan Adair said affects service levels. They train not only GOVA Transit drivers, but motorists throughout the city\u2019s fleet and ensure the city retains its Commercial Vehicle Operator Registration, which the business case noted is \u201cat risk due to a rise in enforcement infractions,\u201d including red light and speed camera violations and preventable collisions. The city received a warning letter from the Ministry of Transportation \u201curging corrective action.\u201d This added $134,308 onto the tax levy.
\n\tAdd fixed transit service to Villa St. Gabriel: This adds a stop to GOVA Route 104 to serve the long-term care facility in Chelmsford, which Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant said is the only such facility which falls outside of the conventional GOVA Transit system. \u201cThey\u2019ve had staff leave because of the poor bus service,\u201d Brabant said. This was approved as a one-year pilot program from November 2026 to November 2027. Although this brings the total net levy impact to $11,876 in 2026, the year\u2019s worth of the program is slated to cost $139,563. <\/p>\n

GOVA Transit ridership numbers are down, with approximately 5.8 million rides projected to take place this year, a drop from last year\u2019s record-setting 6.2 million.<\/p>\n

This, Adair explained recently, is due to a drop in international students at local post-secondary institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that there\u2019s a level of stability in 2026 that would allow for some flatline and increased ability to forecast for the future in terms of ridership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four service-level increases were approved for GOVA Transit during 2026 budget deliberations, with amendments to increase GOVA Route…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,146634,146633,66],"class_list":["post-333061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-free-tuesdays-for-seniors","tag-greater-sudbury-budgetgova-transitgreater-sudbury-budget-consultationsgreater-sudbury-budget-deliberationsgreater-sudbury-budget-2026-27gova-transit","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}