This is important for #ottnews media and #Ottpoli candidates because I’ve been seeing it mentioned repeatedly. The transit budget is not 50/50 (fares/transit levy). The operating budget is nearly $700 M. In “normal” years we collected $200 M in fares. Lately, we collect much less 
This is important as people debate lower cost or #FreeTransit. We’ve been collecting about 1/5th of normal fare volume. Think about that. We are already so close to free transit, it’s a low fraction of the operating budget. $40 million? For universal transit in #Ottawa? Wow.
There are caveats of course. This includes other orders of gov compensation during the pandemic. But the point is, with operational funding now being discussed at the federal level, and as a powerful call to meet climate, equity and congestion objectives, this is achievable.
This also doesn’t include the relatively easy shifts we could make to further reduce congestion, such as demand based parking rates funnelled back into sustainable transportation, eliminating fare enforcement/collection and reducing road widening.
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