uoLeaks Raw SFUO and uOttawa news

Reality Check: An Examination of the SFUO/CUSA’s Factual Errors, Specious Reasoning, and Omissions

uoLeaks has just learned that Wednesday, 16 November 2011 at 9:30 a.m., students from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University will be making a presentation to the City of Ottawa Transit Commission rebutting a lobby document funded and written jointly by the SFUO and the Carleton University Student Association (CUSA). The meeting will take place in Andrew Haydon Hall in 110 Laurier Avenue West and is open to the public.

The rebuttal document has been made available to uoLeaks and is available for reading here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lq4V2F1QsAMzIdS4dDCW-Spt1Lz8cfLQea6lUdeyMAU/edit?hl=en_US

Given the shady tactics used by the SFUO to gain approval for the U-Pass referendum--as well as the fact that students were lied to that the length of the pilot project would only be eight months--the uoLeaks team empathizes with those who are victimized by the U-Pass. The lobby document prepared by SFUO/CUSA is only a continuation of a pattern wherein Student Federations use their members' own money to wage a propaganda war for the U-Pass, making it difficult-to-impossible for non-transit users to be heard.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the U-Pass, one cannot ignore three major social "bads" created through the mandatory U-Pass program: equity, health, and environment. For any good to be correctly priced, the benefits and costs to society must be factored into the final price. For example, the government taxes cigarettes (a bad) and offers subsidies for fitness  programs (a good).

In Canada, over 50% of youth from upper quartiles of income attend university compared with 31% of youth from the bottom quartile of income. Thus the U-pass gives a discount to students from families who can most afford to pay the full price for transit compared with families who cannot afford to pay. Shifting income from general city tax revenues (which are earned through a progressive regime) to the hands of students from high-income backgrounds violates an important issue of social fairness: that it is favourable to society to have lower variance in its population’s incomes. Furthermore, a mandatory U-pass shifts ticket and bus sales away from small businesses owners, many of whom depend on the sale of tickets and bus passes to supplement their incomes. Do we want our small business owners to be less prosperous or more prosperous?

Harm to the environment comes from the fact that at Carleton University, there was a gain of 4393 transit users at the expense of 1909 bikers & walkers and 2691 car drivers. At the U of O, we gained 5852 transit users at the expense of 5510 bikers & walkers and 76 car drivers.

In total, the U-Pass has caused a gain in 10245 transit users at the expense of 7419 bikers & walkers and 2767 car drivers.

This does not reflect sound environmental policy. Backing a policy that caused 75% of transit gains to be from walkers & cyclists is an abomination. Walking and cycling has no net pollution or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the other hand, buses have a net polluting effect and emit GHGs. Therefore, when policies such as the U-Pass cause thousands of walkers and cyclists to replace their method of transportation to campus with the bus, this represents net environmental harm.

Furthermore, student health has been affected through the more sedentary lifestyle a U-Pass affords. The U-Pass discourages students from having an active lifestyle by not providing opt-out options for those who use green transportation options. As noted in the above rebuttal document, the Canadian Medical Association Journal states:

“We confirm that there is irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of regular physical activity in the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis) and premature death... There appears to be a linear relation between physical activity and health status, such that a further increase in physical activity and fitness will lead to additional improvements in health status.”

Current opinion in Psychiatry states:

“Results of the studies continue to support a growing literature suggesting that exercise, physical activity and physical-activity interventions have beneficial effects across several physical and mental-health outcomes. Generally, participants engaging in regular physical activity display more desirable health outcomes across a variety of physical conditions. Similarly, participants in randomized clinical trials of physical-activity interventions show better health outcomes, including better general and health-related quality of life, better functional capacity and better mood states.”

An important side note is that the U-Pass system has and is being cheated. Anne-Marie Roy, the U-pass coordinator for the SFUO, admitted in an interview with campus media that students were deceptively signing up for a full course load to receive a U-pass, only to later quickly drop courses to part-time status. This lets part-time students who would otherwise be ineligible for a U-pass to obtain one. The website of the GSA of Carleton University also admits that it is possible for students to take advantage of the system in this manner.

We encourage all students to attend tomorrow's session at City Hall if they can!