At Monday night’s city council meeting, council rejected a request to consider discounted bus passes for Ukrainian refugees. 

The city received a letter from a concerned resident, Steve Hrynkiw, who is hosting a Ukrainian family that has fled the country due to the war with Russia. 

Hrynkiw proposed a discount program that would give the refugees free bus passes for three months and $25 bus passes for the remainder of the year. 

“Many places in Ukraine and Europe do not need civilians to have a driver’s license and the cost for the family at our house to get a family pass is almost equivalent to one month’s working wage in Ukraine for the average family,” Hrynkiw’s letter reads. 

However, concerns were raised about the precedence the discount would create. The request did not take into consideration offering the same service to other refugees to Canada and it was felt that offering discounts to refugees from one geographical location would be unfair to refugees from all other countries. 

City council was given the option to offer a discount to all refugees. However, the issue became how can you prove someone is a refugee versus a permanent resident? 

“So, we do believe we can do it through the temporary visas that they are issued if they can provide proof of that because that is something that the Government of Canada does issue to refugees when they come into the country, and that would be the means that we could enforce that versus residents or actual permanent residents of the country,” said Director of Public Works Darrin Stephanson. 

Currently, bus passes cost $80 per month for adults and $65 per month for students. The city estimates that the proposed discount would result in $735 in lost revenue per adult and $555 per student for a service that is already heavily subsidized. 

“I'm not opposed to trying to increase ridership, but I don't know if selecting one group of people is the way of doing it,” said Coun. Doug Blanc.  

“I, personally, would prefer to have some sort of a reduction to everybody, including all citizens, but that's just my personal preference that it included everybody and I don't think this is going to do it.” 

There are $25 discount passes available to residents, but they must be enrolled in one of the following Social Services programs:  

  • Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) 
  • Provincial Training Allowance (PTA) 
  • Saskatchewan Employment Supplement (SES) 
  • Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS)