Funding renewed, but NDP calls foul

Saskatchewan’s $1.8-million discounted bus pass program was worth paying for in a tough budget, Silverspring-Sutherland MLA Paul Merriman said.

“I think it’s a matter of people moving around the city, being able to get from Point A to Point B,” he said after announcing the continuation of funding at a news conference Wednesday at Saskatoon City Hall.

The program provides a $25 discount on monthly passes for bus riders on income assistance.

As executive director of the food bank for five years, Merriman saw how transit helped people with low incomes get there. Transit also gets people to medical appointments or work, he said. Councillors from participating cities also supported the program, he said.

The NDP in a news release took aim at the announcement, saying: “For two days in a row, the Sask. Party have called on journalists to gather around and listen while a minister stands — somehow with a straight face — and tries to pretend it’s big news that they have left one of the programs that provides people living on low incomes with discounted bus passes at the same level as the last three years.”

The funding announcement “contrasts with a $750,000 cut to transit funding for 4,000 Saskatchewan people living with disabilities, ignores the reality of Sask. Party cuts and increased bus fares, and will do nothing to help anyone from outside of Saskatchewan’s urban centre,” the NDP said.

The amounts received are: Saskatoon, $888,000; Regina, $729,000; Prince Albert, $119,000; Moose Jaw, $61,000; North Battleford, $7,500; Yorkton, $18,750; and Swift Current, $8,750.