Fare Free For Youth
Gas prices are soaring while heat waves are only getting hotter. It’s time for Montreal to invest in free youth transit: a solution that will lower families’ bills and our carbon emissions.
Precedent: 28 cities across Canada and Quebec have already adopted fare-free youth transit policies, including major cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, and Victoria and Quebec communities like Gatineau and Mont-Tremblant.
Increasing Ridership: Potential for increasing overall ridership and instilling life-long public transit use habits also poses a compelling case for longevity and lasting cost benefits
Efficiency and Wellbeing: Many jurisdictions have money set aside dedicated to funding youth initiatives that support their health and wellbeing. Encouraging freedom for youth boosts economic opportunities, improves mental health and likelihood of staying in school. Streamlines priorities and programs into one – saving time, money, and carbon emissions.
Free youth transit opens up unlimited transit for families that pays for itself the more you use it!
Benefits of free youth transit
Climate
- Reduces car trips
- Emission reduction
- Air pollution reduction
Economic
- Annual family savings of at least $720 (the cost of a student pass for 12-months)
- A benefit-cost ratio of 3.6:1 for every dollar spent funding free youth transit, returning triple the investment back into the community
- Organizations and schools have bigger budgets and options to transport classrooms to educational opportunities
Health
- Increased access to social connection, reduced isolation
- Increased access to sports and recreation
- Increased access to counselling and mental health supports
Labour and skills
- Better access to part-time jobs, training programs, shopping
Education
- Equitable access to education including to and from school, extracurriculars, placements, etc.
It’s already in the plan!
City of Montreal
- Climate Plan
- Reduce GHGs by 55%
- Decrease consumption of fossil fuels
- Reduce solo car trips
- Economic Plan
- Reinforce solidarity, equity, and inclusion
- Offer Montrealers safe, high-quality communities that are responsive to their needs
- Nature and Sports Plan
- Launch a nature training program for youth to improve their connection to nature
- Strategic Plan
- Expand and diversify transportation options by providing integrated, affordable, and accessible sustainable mobility options (active, shared, public, and low-carbon) for everyone
Quebec Government
- Youth Policy’s Strategic Priorities
- Health 1.3. Focus on mental health problems
- Education 2.1 Increase student retention 2.2 Support access to and participation in extracurricular activities
- Citizenship 3.1 Encourage civic engagement 3.3 Broaden opportunities to engage in volunteer work 3.5 Encourage environmentally responsible behaviour
- Employment 4.1 Integrate into the labour market young people in difficulty and young people who are neither in employment nor in education and training
- Quebec Policy on Health Prevention
- Taking sustainable action on determinants of health.
- Reduce by 10% the burden of preventable diseases (respiratory health)
- Reduce by 10% the premature mortality caused by socioeconomic inequalities
