Comment 17301

By Don McLean (anonymous) | Posted January 18, 2008 at 22:06:21

I agree with Thom that HSR fares are too high and the recent steep hikes were over the top. But there is a perverse logic in the differential in pricing between passes and tickets. If you use a pass, you can claim the 15.5 percent federal tax rebate for transit passes. If you buy tickets you can't. And here's the perversity.

City councillors have screamed long and loud at the ugly fact that the Ontario government claws back the National Child Benefits provided to low-income families by the Canadian government. Councillors have quite rightly condemned this practice, and to their credit, they have taken the 20 percent of that clawback that Ontario gives to Hamilton and are using it to directly support low-income families - as the federal government intended.

But on transit passes, the shoe is on the other foot. The city is clawing back the federal transit tax rebate. If you just take the adult pass hikes over the last year, as Thom notes they went from $65 to $79 a month - a $14 a month hike. Even at the new price, the federal tax rebate is only $12.25. So the city has clawed back the entire amount. Someone should tell Stephen Harper that one of the only good things he's done is being completely undermined by Hamilton city council.

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