Buck a Ride Citywide. At No New Cost to Taxpayers.
A bold first step to bring riders back and get transit working again.
Reliable. Frequent. Affordable.
Transit systems work when they are reliable, frequent, and affordable.
Right now, OC Transpo is none of those.
To improve reliability and frequency, OC Transpo leadership has been clear: there are no quick fixes. We need more buses on the road. We need more mechanics. We need to get to the bottom of the LRT failures. And we need time.
In the days ahead, I’ll be laying out a full plan to fix those issues.
But if we’re serious about recovery, we need to start where we can act immediately.
Affordability is the lever we can pull right now.
And after asking riders to endure a system that too often fails them, the least we can do is make it affordable again.
Restoring the value of a trip
Today, riders pay $4.10 per trip—making Ottawa one of the most expensive transit systems in Canada.
But price only makes sense when the service delivers value.
When a trip takes two hours instead of a 40-minute drive, $4.10 isn’t just expensive—it’s hard to justify at all.
As Mayor, I will restore that value: $1 per ride, with a monthly cap of $40.
Buck a Ride Citywide.
Une piasse te déplace.
A transit recovery plan
This isn’t just about making transit cheaper.
It’s about bringing riders back.
Ottawa is stuck in a downward spiral: fewer riders → service cuts → higher fares → even fewer riders.
We cannot cut our way out of that cycle.
We have to grow our way out.
And more riders mean a stronger constituency for service improvements.
Buck a Ride is the first step in reversing that spiral—and putting transit on the road to recovery.
With an annual budget approaching $1 billion, Ottawa’s transit system is not delivering the results residents deserve.
Despite a 33% increase in the transit budget over the past four years, riders have not seen meaningful improvements in reliability or travel times.
We don’t just need to spend more, we need to change the trajectory.
Benefits across the city
Over $1,000 in annual savings
Regular riders could save more than $1,000 a year. That’s real money back in people’s pockets at a time when affordability matters more than ever.
Less congestion
More people choosing transit means fewer cars on the road—and less time stuck in traffic.
What it costs and why it works
Buck a Ride is ambitious but it’s grounded in rigour.
The average fare paid today is $2.42, not the published $4.10 adult fare, meaning the cost of Buck a Ride is less than people might assume. And lower prices get more riders back on transit, offsetting some of the foregone revenue.
Based on 2025 data and observed ridership patterns, Buck a Ride would create roughly 25 million additional trips every year, bringing riders back into the system at scale.
Even with millions of new trips offsetting lost revenue, the net funding gap would be approximately $83 million per year.
Our full methodology is outlined in this technical note.
No new cost to taxpayers
Today, Ottawa residents already pay for transit through their taxes, whether they use it or not. Buck a Ride makes sure those tax dollars actually bring people back to the system and get transit working again.
Here is how we will pay for Buck a Ride without raising taxes.
1. LRT upload (primary funding source)
When the province uploads the LRT, Ottawa saves approximately $85 million annually.
Recent budget increases of a similar size ($88 million in 2025, $83 million in 2026) have not delivered meaningful improvements for riders. Instead of those funds getting absorbed into the system, we will return that value directly to the people who use it.
2. Open Books, 100 Days (bridge funding)
If the upload is delayed, we will bridge the gap through targeted savings identified in our Open Books, 100 Days campaign promise.
By making city spending transparent and understandable, we can identify waste and redirect resources to where they matter most.
3. Transit development agency (long-term sustainability)
Over time, a new transit development agency, as I have previously proposed, will generate revenue by leveraging land around stations—creating a sustainable funding stream to support and expand transit service.
Time for a different approach
The long-term fix for transit is clear: reliable and frequent buses, and rail you can trust.
But those fixes will take time.
The first step to recovery is bringing riders back.
When transit costs $8 a day, it’s easy to justify $20 parking.
When it costs $2, the equation changes.
We’ve lost a lot of transit riders over the past few years.
Buck a Ride is the fastest way to bring them back.
And put our transit system on the road to recovery.
Buck a Ride Citywide. At No New Cost to Taxpayers.
Politicians at all levels of government always have an endless supply of ideas, but little practical judgment. Making the hard decisions is what separates the experienced adults from amateurs. With OC Transpo, the reality is that underused bus routes in outlying areas of the city must be cut to get the budget more under control. Running busses in far flung suburbs is not possible. Nor is promising home buyers in new developments public transit. Amalgamation has been a curse in so many Ontario cities. We’re stuck with it, but the city needs to stop expanding services such as million-dollar cricket fields and other Ward pet projects. Councillors must relearn the word No.
Would fare zones not be more effective and equitable? Urban routes already bring in more riders at a lower service cost.
Why should a person taking one high ridership bus pay the same as a person taking two or more low ridership buses? I worry this is just another pseudo-transfer of funds from the urban core to the suburbs.