Petition asking B.C. government to scrap bus pass changes delivered to Victoria

Raise the rates, leave the bus passes alone.

That’s the demand from Inclusion BC executive director Faith Bodnar, who was at the B.C. legislature in Victoria this morning to deliver signed petitions asking the B.C. government to reverse the scrapping of the $45 annual bus pass.

In the budget released last month, Finance Minister Michael de Jong announced people with disabilities would receive a $77 per month increase to their benefits, but the increase was tied to the cost of a person’s transportation.

It will replace the existing transportation subsidies and the bus passes will now be optional. So effective Sept.1, 2016, people receiving disability benefits will no longer be able to purchase an annual bus pass for a $45 annual fee. Instead, the cost of the bus pass will go up to $52 per month, including an annual $45 administration fee.

Bodnar says, effectively, that means people on disability who need a bus pass will be left with just $25 a month in their pockets.

READ MORE: Online petition seeks to bring back $45 yearly bus pass for people with disabilities

The announcement ended up becoming a black eye for Premier Christy Clark’s government and one of the most controversial changes announced in the this year’s budget.

Bodnar says at least 15,000 people signed the petition, which was delivered to the Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation Michelle Stilwell.

It was also simultaneously delivered to Clark’s constituency office in Kelowna.

“We will continue to advance the interests of the people with disabilities in B.C. who need a significant raise in the rates,” says Bodnar.

She also wants to see an increase in the disability assistance rates to at least $1,200/ month by Oct. 1, from the current $906/ month.

“We want this to be the first step in bringing disability rates to respectful and livable levels for some of the more vulnerable people in B.C.,” adds Bodnar.

READ MORE: Disabled protesters say B.C. bus pass fee ‘mean’

She says it would take an additional $20 million to keep both the $77/month rate hike and the old bus pass system for the 50,000 people effected by the changes.

“We want the government to fix this mess and do the right thing,” says Bodnar.

Meanwhile, de Jong says the changes to the bus pass system were meant to bring more freedom to people with disabilities to make their own choice about how to meet their own unique transportation needs.

It was a move that didn’t sit well with NDP leader John Horgan, who called it a shell game.