Islanders get a pass, once again
TTC f ares went up again this week, but few seemed to have the energy to complain — perhaps because for once, Metropass users were spared the hike.
The monthly pass stays at $ 141.50, a jolly 20 points above inflation from 15 years ago. But here’s something novel to get mad about, courtesy of Tony Araujo, who runs a product- testing lab and takes an interest in the city’s budget- making process: Did you know the cost of a Metropass has gone up far, far quicker than the cost of a ferry pass?
It is rather striking. In 2000, a TTC monthly pass went for $88.50 and a Toronto Islands ferry pass for $85. The monthly ferry pass now costs just $ 92 — only eight per cent more, a jolly 24 points below inflation. The price of a ferry pass actually dropped by $10 in 1999, from $ 95 to $ 85. Only this year will it finally crest that mark again, at $95.75.
Over that time, the price of a single ferry ticket for adults rose 45 per cent, for students and seniors 58 per cent and for children 75 per cent.
“I can’t think of a single thing, in or out of the city, in my regular life, where I spend less on it today than I did in 1998,” says Araujo. “What gives? How come this particular community is getting sheltered from inflation?”
He refers to the islands’ residents, whose Cabbagetown-cubed lifestyle, 99-year leases and ample political clout — and willingness to use it — occasionally raise lesser Torontonians’ dander. They’re wealthier than average, Araujo argues. So why are mere mortals who just want a picnic and a swan boat ride subsidizing them?
“There’s lots of different things that have influenced fare determinations in the past — some of them political, some of them financial,” Parks, Forestry and Recreation spokesman Matthew Cutler says, carefully. “But in the last few years, the division’s approach has been to bring forward inflationary increases or increases that reflect the cost of doing business.”
Indeed, the 2016 parks budget calls for roughly fourper-cent fare increases across the board. But the Islander Advantage is baked in.
Then there is the absurdly generous off- season ferry schedule: Islanders enjoy winter service to Ward’s Island that’s very nearly as frequent as in summer — 23 trips every day, from 6: 35 a. m. to 11: 30 p. m., carrying an average daily January ridership of just 544. They don’t run the big brutes — that’s on the Ongiara, the smallest ferry in the fleet. Still, it can carry 220 people.
There is little point complaining about it: That service level is guaranteed by the 1993 Toronto Islands Residential Community Stewardship Act, which granted the long-term leases and cemented the island neighbourhoods’ f uture. Still, it is a frustrating state of affairs. As you read this, the entire frozen Toronto Islands are yours to discover. You might not see another soul, and you’ll never wait more than an hour for a ferry. In the summer, however, when people flock to the islands — nearly 370,000 ferry passengers in August alone — they have to endure notoriously interminable queues.
You could argue it at least keeps crowds manageable on the island side, if getting there weren’t so bloody expensive: $ 21.50 for a family of four is no small thing for many people in this city, and redistributing the islanders’ share more fairly would still leave a distasteful financial barrier between the city’s greatest public asset and its citizens.
The islands weren’t even islands until 1858, yet we treat them like the bloody Galapagos. A normal city would have bridged or tunnelled the eastern and western gaps for pedestrians ages ago, and left any remaining ferry demand to the private sector. Instead, the city is planning to replace the ferry fleet, with four new ones expected between 2019 and 2033 at a projected cost of $41.5 million.
They ought to alleviate crowding, at least. But in my view, access to the islands deserves a more comprehensive rethink: if not terrestrial access of some sort then free or vastly cheaper ferries. The ferry service’s gross expenses are about $ 8 million a year — not chump change, but not crippling either. I ain’t no pinko, but absent a compelling reason otherwise, I don’t think you should have to pay to get into a city park. A couple of hundred metres of open water on either side have never compelled me in the slightest.