The use of public transit will be free for people aged 65 and over in Montreal as of July 2023. The Plante administration, which made it an electoral commitment last fall, will spend 40 million annually to achieve this.
This new measure should be officially announced in the city’s next budget, which will be presented next week. However, municipal sources confirm from the outset that the implementation of free admission for those aged 65 and over will indeed cost 40 million annually, as planned.
Note, however: since this new incentive will not be implemented until July 2023, it will only cost 24 million for its first year.
On Twitter, on Wednesday, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, spoke of a decision that will allow “seniors to participate fully in life in society and in the ecological transition”. “And it’s a good way to fight inflation,” she exclaimed at the same time.
In June 2021, while she was in the middle of the campaign for her re-election as head of the City, Mme Plante pledged to make free public transit a reality for seniors in 2023.
At the time, the elected official had also announced immediately that people aged 65 and over will be entitled to a price reduction of 50%, to reach a monthly cost of around $30. The savings generated by free admission should therefore represent more than $300 for a senior.
It should be remembered that free public transport for the elderly has been a key promise of Valérie Plante and her party, Projet Montréal, since the 2017 election campaign, the year in which the mayor was brought to power for the first time. The COVID-19 pandemic had, however, so far prevented the City from moving forward with total free access, explained the mayor.
“The will has always been there, but with the pandemic, we had to make budgetary choices and adapt,” she then detailed.
Since July 2021, children aged 11 and under can already take the metro for free in the metropolis. To be able to take the metro or the bus, they must nevertheless be accompanied by a person aged 14 and over.
With Isabelle Ducas