Some 30,000 high school and junior high students across Halifax Regional Municipality could be impacted after the province decided to cut funding to the student transit pass program.
Nova Scotia’s 2026-27 budget, which was tabled Monday, included a $1.2-billion deficit and a warning that “difficult decisions” will need to be made to balance the books.
As part of the budget, the province will be reducing grants to organizations to the tune of $130.4 million — including the bus pass program.
“We need to hear from Halifax Transit what the impact would be, but right now it’s looking like a $1.2-million add to our budget. I don’t see how we can afford that,” Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore said.
The program has been funded through a partnership between the province and the municipality since 2021 and provided students between grades 7 and 12 with a free student transit pass.
The goal was to improve youth independence and mobility throughout Halifax.
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“This is a very popular and successful program, so it’s extremely disappointing to hear that it’s been cut. I think it’s really short-sighted,” said Coun. Kathryn Morse, who represents District 10.
“It was really important for students to have this for their independence and confidence and that sort of thing, as well as reducing the vehicles on the road and building transit ridership — sort of a culture of transit ridership for the future.”
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The impact of these cuts to program funding was a topic of debate during question period on Wednesday.
“We’re already hearing from Nova Scotians who are anxious. Parents who rely on student bus passes to get their children to school, volunteers who run food security programs that just learned that its funding is gone,” said Iain Rankin, interim Liberal leader.
Premier Tim Houston, however, is standing by these reductions.
“We’re trying to focus the efficiencies, the cuts, the change, whatever you want to call them, on administration and management to protect front-line services, to protect health care, to protect education, to protect housing,” he said.
But the municipality, which has been dealing with its own drawn-out and difficult budget process, is left facing down what options it has during a tough budget year.
“We may look at taking this over. It’s an additional $1.2 million that we weren’t counting on this year. So it will make a real dent,” Morse said.
“But it’s been such a success, we kind of hate to see it put off.”
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