Students at St. Clair College will have their say this week when it comes to the future of the Transit Windsor Saints Bus Pass.
The yearly pass offers students a discounted rate after the school's Student Representative Council (SRC) secured a three-year deal with the city in 2022.
The deal was $300 a year, and built into the student fees. The SRC has since negotiated a three-year renewal effective Sept. 1, 2025 to Aug. 31, 2028, however it comes with a hefty increase of $823 per year.
Ryan Peebles, executive director of the SRC says the pass does have its benefits.
"It's nice because if you are a domestic student and you're planning for OSAP, typically those things are considered in your OSAP application for way of transportation," he said. "It also helps when international students are coming to country, they have that already paid in the tuition so they're not coming to Canada going 'okay now I've got to find $800 and some odd dollars to get me a transit pass for the year', it's already included in their tuition."
He says students would still have the option to opt-out of the program should it continue.
"We do have an opt out percent of up to 40 per cent, but we do allow students who live outside the catchment area of transit or purchase a parking pass on college campus, they have those rights to apply for an opt out period, but the students who utilize the bus, they do see it as an increase to their students fees, so they were a little sticker shocked," Peebles said.
Peebles characterized negotiations with the city as 'shocking' and 'alarming'.
"I'm sure you see in the news where the mayor dictated the college needs to pony up for the increase in international students," he said. "There's almost comments made that the city subsidizing the rates for students because the city taxpayers are upset. I just wanted to remind the city that students, regardless of where they're from, are city taxpayers as well, so they are not being subsidized by city taxpayers because the students themselves are also taxpayers."
If students reject the renewal, the Saints Bus Pass program will end and students who rely on transit will need to source their own bus pass from the city at a monthly cost of $83.75 for youth age 19 and under, and $122.00 for adults.
Voting on the referendum runs from Feb. 24 through Feb. 28 at noon.
More information for students can be found here: https://www.stclair-src.org/services/bus-pass.