Tell Mayor Tory and your Councillor to fund lower fares and improved TTC service -- not increase fares, policing, and make service cuts!
Toronto City Council is voting soon on the 2023 budget. Fare increases for adults and youth, allowing more crowding, and service cuts are proposed -- 9% less service in 2023 than pre-pandemic levels. That's why your Councillor needs to hear from you! Remind them of their promises made before the election, or ask them to commit now to protect the TTC from cuts.
Use our online form and ask them to:
- Improve TTC service and reverse service cuts by increasing City funding for transit.
- Raise the money TTC needs using tools like a Commercial Parking Levy for big malls and commercial landlords, which could unlock hundreds of millions per year.
- Invest in supportive staff roles who are trained to de-escalate crisis situations and provide wayfinding and accessibility services, not more policing.
- Fully fund the Fair Pass program ($2.10 fares and $123.25 passes for low wage workers) and lower fares for all.
Cutting service will hurt shift workers, women, and low-income and racialized people the most. Cuts will only drive more people away from the TTC, wrecking Toronto’s chances at meeting our climate goals.
Increasing the cost of transit hurts low-income residents most.
TTC data shows that current TTC ridership is mostly shift workers, women, and low-income people. If fares go up, Mayor Tory will be asking the lowest-income Toronto residents to pay more to get to work instead of asking those who can afford to pay more.
A fare increase is especially unfair because of high inflation. And, fares have been going up faster than inflation for years. If TTC fare increases had been indexed to inflation rates over the past 20 years, riders would be paying $2.74 per ride today. (A single TTC fare cost $1.80 in 2002.)
Cuts are unfair. And they aren't the only option.
Toronto can unlock hundreds of millions of dollars per year to fund better transit, with tools like a parking levy on big malls and commercial properties.
A Commercial Parking Levy could raise between $191 and $575 million per year, according to a 2021 City of Toronto staff report. In 2020, City Council voted to ask for a staff report about implementation approaches for a Commercial Parking Levy, to create a dedicated revenue stream for transit and climate initiatives.
Send your message now to speak up for our public transit system!
Thirteen Councillors have pledged to protect the TTC from service cuts.
TTCriders sent a survey to all City Council candidates before the election about transit issues. The Mayor and twelve Councillors who did not promise to protect the TTC need to hear from you: ask them to commit now to investing in the TTC to prevent service cuts.
The 13 Councillors who promised to protect the TTC from cuts need a reminder from you too. Use our tool to send the message that you will be watching their voting record on this issue.
The transit discount program for low-income residents is years overdue.
City Council first approved the Fair Pass in December 2016 as part of its Poverty Reduction Strategy, but the program is still not fully funded for all low-income people in Toronto. The Fair Pass discounts single fares to $2.10 and monthly passes to $123.25, and the final phase will extend the discount to people earning the Low Income Measure plus 15% or lower (ie. $30,555/single person household, according to 2020 LIM figures). Expanding the Fair Pass to low-wage workers will cost approximately $20 million per year, according to an October 2020 City staff report.
A small expansion of the program has been funded in the 2023 budget, but it will only benefit 8,000-12,000 people this year, according to a budget briefing note published January 10, 2023. The proposed $2 million will fund an expansion to low income residents with a family income of 75% of the Low-Income Measure or lower (ie. an annual after-tax income of less than $19,927/single person household, according to 2020 LIM figures).