The City of Winnipeg is considering adopting a Low-Income Bus Pass in this year’s budget. This is a great step in the right direction, and one of the recommendations that the Make Poverty History Manitoba coalition called for in our Winnipeg Without Poverty report.
Affordable transit is foundational to building a socially equitable community, as well as for achieving our city’s environmental obligations. A low-income bus pass will play an essential role in making transit more affordable for everyone, as well as serving as a crucial part of the City of Winnipeg’s role in reducing poverty.
Last year, Make Poverty History Manitoba published Winnipeg Without Poverty: Calling on the City to Lead, the community’s call to action for the city to develop and implement a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy. Our community vision is for the City of Winnipeg to take a strategic approach to reducing poverty by identifying realistic goals to help guide decision making, as well as considering all city policies through the lens of how they impact those in poverty and the most vulnerable in our community.
Within this report, we examined the best practices of poverty reduction strategies in other communities across Canada. A low-income bus pass was a key, game-changing idea within an overall poverty reduction strategy that we included in our report. Naturally, our members were excited to see this proposal being seriously considered by the City of Winnipeg with broad support from the general public.
We support the implementation of a sliding scale low income bus pass program, fully integrated with the Transit Plus program. We also support reduced general fares and improved service across the city.
Please read our letter that was sent to Winnipeg’s Mayor and City Councillors outlining our position on the Low-Income Bus Pass: