The U-Pass program has been extremely beneficial for students all over the Lower Mainland, but with the ongoing transit referendum, the future of the program may be at risk.

According to the U-Pass website, and from an SFU City Conversations event I was part of with the chief negotiator for the program, the current contract with TransLink for our U-Pass prices ends next April and will need to be re-negotiated. However, if the referendum does not result in a ‘yes’ vote, the U-Pass program may likely cease to exist.

As students, it is crucial that we become involved in our community by voting in this referendum. The Metro Vancouver region is our home and many of us will continue to live here beyond graduation, and we have a responsibility to the place we live. We pay thousands of dollars at university to invest in our future careers; it only takes minutes to register online, and mail in our ballots to invest in the future of our home.

In order for the U-Pass program to continue, students must come together and vote ‘yes’ for better transit. At the City Conversations event, Jonathan Cote, the Mayor of New Westminster, stated that this vote seems to be a method the Mayors’ Council is using to see if the public is invested in transit improvements for the region.

This would be so that municipalities and the province will be even more invested in transportation needs. According to Cote, the tax increase is not a major funder of the projects, but rather an indicator of our commitment to transportation — a necessity we must be willing to invest in for the future.

The transit tax is an indicator of our commitment to transportation.

Unfortunately, this measure of community commitment would backfire if the referendum results in a ‘no’ vote. Discussion at the event surrounded how the Mayor’s Council will take this as a message from the region that we do not care enough about a healthy, sustainable, and congestion-free region to invest in transportation.

This message could also undermine future U-Pass negotiations, since current funding for our transit system’s services has been maxed out. Past incidents, such as a U-Pass price hike a few years ago, have shown how TransLink, under higher political authority, may not maintain subsidized fares for students if they need more money to increase services. From a business point of view, it makes sense to charge students more for the services they are using if we take no action to try and make our services better.

However, we can avoid another U-Pass price hike — or even losing the pass altogether — by voting ‘yes,’ the tax money from everyone in the Lower Mainland will go towards actually increasing services throughout the entire region, so there will be even more accessibility, hours, and places to go with our shiny blue U-Pass.

We shouldn’t take what we have for granted. We have U-Passes thanks to the hard work and advocacy from students like us. Let’s be the next group to do something beneficial for all students.