Free Transit for Post-Secondary Students in Quesnel
Quesnel, B.C – Quesnel City Council has decided to provide free transit to users of its North Cariboo Community Campus this fall semester (Sept 8 – Dec 31).
The decision comes on the heels of CNC’s decision to institute pay-parking this summer.
Mayor Bob Simpson calls that decision “an affront to the community on a two-fold basis.”
“One, we don’t have pay parking anywhere and they go and unilaterally institute pay parking,” says Simpson. “The second piece is that that’s our campus, and we believe that there should have been fairly significant consultations before any changes were made.”
He adds the free transit is “an interim measure” and only users of the campus qualify adding it should come at just a token cost to taxpayers
“We’re not able to do that (calculate the cost) because we don’t currently track the different users on our transit system,” says Simpson. “But we don’t suspect it’s going to cost us very much. In the past when we’ve looked at students use of transit it has been minimal.”
Students will be required to present their student ID cards to bus drivers to be eligible.
CNC president Henry Reiser released a statement yesterday noting the “parking fees of three dollars a day will cover maintenance costs, snow removal, line painting, curbs and asphalt repairs. This is the same parking rate as the Prince George campus has had for the past 12 years.”
In addition, Reiser and CNC Board Chair Vince Price will be attending a special open meeting of Council to discuss the College’s pay-parking initiative Monday, September 28.
Comments
If you can afford to drive to school you can certainly afford the 3 bucks a day to help cover the costs of the parking lot you’re using.
My goodness, what a sense of entitlement we’ve instilled in our younger generations.
Bravo Mr. Simpson Bravisimo . Feeing students to death is so wrong . once they get the three dollar thin edge of the wedge in , it will soon go up and up .
It’s not the tree dollars a day that is the money maker … It’s the $40 fines when class runs over and the meter isn’t paid. The fines just line the pockets of an Alberta corporation with deep political connections… Paid for by students just trying to get ahead.
It’s disgusting opportunism by the politicians involved.
It’s 3 dollars a day, it won’t matter if classes “run over” or not. Besides, classes don’t run over.
If you’re going to drive a car, you need to understand that there are costs associated with doing so. No one rides for free even though a lot of people feel entitled to do so.
If Bob really cared, he would have pushed for free transit a long time ago.
So you are saying those running a car are not on a budget, okay then.
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