Connecting ODSP and Ontario Works to a Free Ride

Photo of riders waiting to get on a TTC bus. Copyright 2012 the Toronto Star.

 The TTC has conducted their annual "bean counting" (if I might paraphrase Steve Munro) to look good in front of politicians at City Hall, once again showing how finicky the budgeting process can be. I thought I'd comment on one of the proposed reports by the commission. The TTC appears to be studying whether it's possible to subsidize recipients of ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program) and Ontario Works. I think this is a great idea, but there are obviously some logistical details that would need to be solved.

When I lived in Halifax, there was a minor controversy between the city's Metro Transit and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Allow me to set my story up first.

Halifax's transit is almost exclusively bus-driven (the exception being the ferry). Like TTC busses, you put your fare in a coin box, or you flash a transit pass to the driver. There are no fancy machines (like they have in Vancouver) that you can insert stuff into to obtain transfers and the like. Paying your fare therefore means dealing with a human being. For a long time, Halifax's transit service gave free passes to CNIB members. Like university students who got free transit passes (well, technically our tuition helped pay for them), they had to show some photo ID with them. I would show my "Dal Card", whereas a blind individual would show their CNIB card. This prevented people from handing the pass off the someone else to use.

What essentially happened (to my understanding) between Metro Transit and the CNIB is that other handicapable groups thought it was unfair that people with a particular disability got free access to transit, but other groups did not. Given the wide range of potential disabilities (not to mention trying to figure out who got a free transit pass, and who didn't), getting each group to create their own photo ID was impractical; it's one thing if a bus operator only need to understand a handful of cards. It's another if they're expected to remember and identify potentially dozens, each used by a fragment of the population. The decision for Metro Transit was therefore either to create a new identification card that all groups who qualified (whatever metric that fell under), or to cut the program out entirely.

Likely given the expense, consultation, and time the former would require (and there were rumours of a legal challenge had they continued to simply award passes to CNIB members), they chose the latter. But I want to be clear that more than the financial cost (handicapable people make up only a small portion of the population), it was really a lack of infrastructure that hindered the addition of new groups.

I bring this up not because of the obvious social justice issues around the decision (and it's not really about the competing interests, if you were handicapable but not blind, the decision still doesn't help you), but simply to identify that sometimes the best of intentions are stymied by the ability of meeting those intentions.

Getting back to the Toronto context, we see some obvious parallels. There is not a "card" that people on ODSP or Ontario Works get that would likely serve as an appropriate ID. This isn't necessarily a problem; the TTC already has the infrastructure to create photo ID (at Sherbourne Station) for students who wish to purchase student transit passes, so creating a new ID wouldn't be out of the realm of reality. But we also have to consider how low-income groups use transit.

The $104 to $126 dollars that a metropass costs on a monthly basis is too expensive for people on a fixed income (such as retired seniors and individuals on ODSP are likely to be). What you're more likely to find is that individuals with limited finances will instead make a small amount of trips. Perhaps they would take more with a reduced fare, but it's unlikely it would be enough to justify the cost of a monthly pass. The logistical issue then, is how do you do you get infrequent users to pay a lower fare?

It seems impractical to drag an individual out to Sherbourne Station to sit in line for an hour to get a photo ID so they can get a discount when they pay for transit they probably rarely use anyway. Asking people on ODSP to present forms at a grocery checkout or when getting on a bus to purchase discounted fare also sounds impractical (not to mention embarrassing). The city might have infrastructure to deliver a discount, but they don't likely have the infrastructure to determine who is/is not eligible for one. For the system to work, you need some sort of middleman, one that likely doesn't exist at the City of Toronto level.


Perhaps then, the middleman should be the ones already in charge of determining who does/does not get on ODSP or Ontario Works: the Ontario Government. While they may not have the infrastructure to give people on ODSP/Ontario Works photo ID, they know where the people who collect either live. With the two levels of government working together, this is is then figuring out who should pay for the subsidy.

I think the obvious choice is the Ontario Government, especially since greater access to transit could reduce the costs the Ontario Government incurs. Greater transit access can the opportunities for both ODSP and Ontario Works recipients to get access to social services and employment. The money saved could be used to help subsidize the TTC's ability to provide transit to these individuals. The Ontario Government saves money, and the City of Toronto doesn't lose money, and the people who need their help benefit. That sounds like a win for all parties.