By Je Ho Cho
In May 2020, the Trillium Line in Ottawa was closed for an extension project nearly two decades in the making. Over four years later, students en route to Carleton University continue to load themselves onto cramped replacement buses – neatly wrapped station exteriors and empty new trains passing by on their daily commute. When the inevitable bus delay or cancellation occurs, the crowd of miserable commuters grows.
From social media anecdotes to a Youtube documentary, Dude, Where’s my Bus?, lamenting the suburban bus rider’s woes, unreliable bus routes leading to a consistent decline in OC Transpo’s public image are familiar stories to Ottawa residents. Ridership statistics show that OC Transpo has the worst recovery out of all municipal transit systems in Ontario since COVID-19: 51% of 2019’s riders returning to the service in 2022. While the federal government’s controversial return-to-office mandate has increased ridership levels, the increased ridership has coincided with planned service cuts to bus routes and cuts to off-peak Line 1 frequency. The current situation for the city’s public transit is also reflected by a projected transit budget deficit of $120 million by 2025, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
“You’re pushing people away from this service.”
City council, led by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, has conducted a dogged “Fairness for Ottawa” campaign to lobby the federal and provincial governments to make up the gap in funding. Following months of videos demanding “fairness” in the form of payments from the federal government in lieu of property taxes, Mayor Sutcliffe unveiled the 2025 city budget on November 13th, 2024. The draft budget proposed fare hikes, property tax increases, and a 120% rise in the cost of senior passes. It also contained “anticipated funding of $36M from the federal and provincial governments” that the mayor could not guarantee was forthcoming.
The Fulcrum reported that the University of Ottawa Student Union (UOSU) received a letter from OC Transpo demanding a 5 percent increase in annual student transit pass (U-Pass) fees. This would be double the previously agreed upon amount of 2.5 percent. Further reporting from CBC revealed this increase would apply to all four of Ottawa’s post-secondary institutions — including Carleton University.
Carleton’s Undergraduate Students Association (CUSA) and UOSU released a joint open letter to Ottawa City Council criticizing the lack of consultation with student unions prior to the proposed U-Pass changes.
City Council’s Transit Commission meeting on November 25th reflected public opposition to the changes. Public delegates, such as Sarah Donelley, castigated councillors for the counterproductive nature of fare increases on transit ridership.
“You’re pushing people away from this service. As often as you talk about trying to bring people back to public transit after the pandemic, reduction in services and the proposed 5% increase in fares will never bring back people to your service like you want it to.” Donnelley continued to criticize these fare increases for “directly targeting those with lower incomes.”
“The leadership and council in this city have not been willing for years to fund transit adequately, and each year of austerity worsens it further”
Ana Clara Miranda Guimaraes, CUSA’s Associate Vice President Research and Advocacy, also spoke to the perspective of students at Carleton University in response to a question on the financial burden of the fare increase.
“We received around 300 responses [through CUSA’s student consultation] and 50% of them were only concerns around transit… most of them were reliability of buses, cost, and lack of transit system at Carleton.” Guimaraes added that the delay of the Trillium Line’s opening was a top concern among students in CUSA’s annual Advocacy Roadmap.

A unanimous motion at the November 25th hearing, introduced by Councillor Shawn Menard (Capital Ward), moved staff to “enter into negotiations and consultations with the four affected post-secondary institutions’ administration and students, prior to the 2025 Fall Academic Term, to achieve the budgeted revenue targets as approved by Council on December 11, 2024.”
When asked for comment on what would happen if negotiations with post-secondary representatives fell through, City of Ottawa Director of Transit Customer Systems and Planning Pat Scrimgeour told The Leveller that “staff have engaged each post-secondary institution to discuss how this variation from the agreement would be documented and agreed upon.
“The proposed changes are not confirmed to take effect until City Council votes on the draft budget on December 11. Staff will follow the direction of Council as part of the budget 2025 process being discussed further on December 11.”
Despite the public backlash and opposition from three of the nine committee members, the Transit Commission passed OC Transpo’s 2025 budget for consideration by Council. On December 11th, Ottawa City Council passed an adjusted version of the proposed transit budget. Increases to senior passes were reduced to 19% from the initially proposed 120% and the 5% increase to U-Pass prices were delayed until September 2025. 18 councillors voted for and seven voted against the budget.
Students at Carleton have expressed their doubts towards the city’s direction for transit in Ottawa. Alex Horner, a second year Computer Systems Engineering student and transit enthusiast at Carleton, expressed doubts about perceived gaps in the city budget.
“The leadership and council in this city have not been willing for years to fund transit adequately, and each year of austerity worsens it further” Horner said to The Leveller. “[Sub-urban ward councillors] don’t see transit as an essential service for the masses, because none of them have to depend on it”
Horner noted that one of the largest problems facing OC Transpo was the reliability of its interconnected bus and light rail network. He stated that reducing service frequency on Line 1 lengthens commute times for users and negatively affects transit ridership — sending the system into a downward spiral.
“People can’t trust the system to get them to places they need to be on time,” Horner stated, “and because of that, more and more people are opting to drive.”
Additionally, Horner noted the nearly 30% reduction in the bus fleet since 2009 (from 1025 to 744 buses today) when compared to a 20% increase in population. Reporting from CTV News revealed the Amalgamation Transit Union Local 279, the union representing OC Transpo mechanics and drivers, was facing a shortage of maintenance staff leading to hundreds of bus cancellations daily.
When asked for comment on OC Transpo’s bus maintenance issues, Director of Transit Bus Operations and Maintenance Rami El Feghali responded to The Leveller with the following:
“We continue to work diligently to implement long-term solutions that will increase our fleet availability through our bus maintenance action plan and the recent launch of our mechanic recruitment campaign and apprenticeship training plan… The 2025 budget includes an additional $17 million for fleet maintenance, for a total of $104 million to support bus fleet maintenance activities.”

Ottawa’s transit issues have had consequences for Carleton University students, particularly those with disabilities or accommodation needs. Hanna Huppé, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Global and Public Affairs, recounts instances in the summer where bus delays and cancellations had severe consequences.
“On many occasions, I have lost feeling in my fingers in winter and nearly passed out in summer because of buses not coming on time… Plus, waiting outside 30 plus minutes for the bus in the summer heat is super unsafe for my [service] dog.”
Huppé specifically cited the unreliability and overcrowding on both OC and Para Transpo networks as a major factor in removing transit as an accessible commuting option.
“[Para Transpo] has its own host of reliability issues and overcrowding… I took OC Transpo to school for a whole year. And I said never again, I can’t.”
For Horner, the solution was clear: fund transit like other municipalities in Canada by diversifying revenue and raising property taxes.
“For example, The City of Gatineau will soon begin charging drivers a $60 fee onto their annual vehicle registration, and all of that money goes directly towards funding the STO (Société de transport de l’Outaouais). Now, the STO is already bringing back routes they had to cancel during COVID… We can increase parking fees. Implement a progressive property tax policy that can further increase revenue without impacting lower income homeowners.”
The property tax increase of 3.9 percent under Ottawa’s 2025 draft budget would rank well below other Canadian municipalities’ 2024 increases: Toronto at 9.5 percent, Edmonton at 8.9 percent, Calgary at 7.8 percent, and Vancouver at 7.5 percent.
“Running and funding a transit network that people can trust isn’t rocket science,” Horner said. “We did it for decades.”