“the situation we’re in is the equivalent of buying a new house based on a salary that you were expecting to earn and a mortgage you can afford and then losing your job and living on a reduced income when at the same time interest rates are going up,” jasmin told councillors.
for the lrt to make economic sense, oc transpo forecasted a ridership of 112 million in 2023. the actual ridership in 2023 was 64 million, just 57 per cent of what’s needed. while other cities have seen ridership rebound after the covid-19 pandemic, oc transpo use hasn’t recovered largely because of the continued work-from-home policies for federal public servants.
that’s a double hit since those commuters pay full fare while many of the riders who have come back are students and other groups that have discounted fares. overall, the decline of ridership cost oc transpo $100 million in revenue in 2023 alone.
fare freezes in 2020 and 2023 added another $430 million hit on expected revenue. in addition, the city’s below-inflation rate tax increases of 2.5 per cent for the past two years were less than the 3.5 per cent increases oc transpo predicted and was banking on.
meanwhile, the city is hamstrung by deals it struck with the federal and provincial government in which each would pay one-third of lrt construction costs. but, when costs ballooned and revenues plummeted, ottawa residents were left holding the bag. while other cities negotiated deals where senior levels of government would carry all or nearly all of the cost of transit, ottawa residents were stuck paying for more than half of its lrt.