Transit fare hike includes low-income Calgarians

Calgarianswith the least money will have to dig a little deeper for amonthly transit pass next month.

It's all because city council approved higher fares for Calgary Transit starting on Jan.1.

The adult monthly pass will go from $101 to $103 per month and the low-income transit pass is tied to that price.

Earlier this year, the city brought in a sliding scale, which means the price of a pass is now based on a person's income. The less you earn, the less you have to pay.

About half of low-income Calgariansqualify forthe lowest priced category.

Here are the current prices along with the coming increases:

A spokesperson for Calgary Transit, Sherri Zickefoose, said the increases are entirely due to the 2018 fare increases for transit.

"Council had already approved a nominal increase to the regular 2018 transit fares," said Zickefoose. "So this is part and parcel of that increase."

Increase not likely to be welcomed

Bonnie Pacaud with the group Fair Fares said any price hike can have an impact.

"It's always a concern when people that are living in poverty, and especially people that are living in extreme poverty, have to pay more money for anything in their life," said Pacaud.

"It makes it very, very difficult."

She expects many low-income Calgarians will be surprised to learn they'll have to pay a bit more for next month's transit pass.

"I don't think that people really will know that there's an increase coming until actually they go to the counter and buy their low-income transit pass for January 1st," said Pacaud.

Sliding scale launched earlier this year

According to the city, 22,000 Calgarians bought a low-income transit pass in November.

That's up from about 17,000 the month before the sliding scale was introduced in April.

The city estimates it will sell over 300,000 low-income transit passes in 2018.

Pacaud is troubled by the larger increase for people at the higher end of the sliding scale.

Before the scale was introduced, the low income pass was priced at $44 a month, but that went to $50.50 for people a the upper threshold.

Next month, thatpass goes up again, to $51.50.

"It's the second increase in eight months so it's going up one dollar, which could be a hardship for them for sure," said Paucaud.

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