#AllOnBoard to End Mobility Poverty Campaign History, Progress and Wins

Written By Common Point Design
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The #AllOnBoard campaign is positioned under the BCPRC Universal Basic Services Information pillar. The campaign calls for universally accessible transit for all people living in BC to ensure every resident can live, work and thrive. #AllOnBoard advocates for fare-free public transit and four immediate policy developments for all transit systems in BC that lay the foundation for universally accessible basic mobility for all.

#AllOnBoard ask

  • Free-fare public transit.

  • First step: Implement free transit for all youth 0-18 in all transit systems in B.C.

  • First step: Implement a sliding scale fare system based on income in all transit systems in B.C.

  • Cease ticketing minors for fare evasion in all transit systems in BC.

  • Implement community service as a do-no-harm alternative to fare evasion fines for low-income adults in all transit systems in B.C.

  • Apply an equity lens to all provincial, regional, and municipal transportation planning to ensure all forms of transportation infrastructure are affordable, accessible, and safe for at-risk and low-income community members.

Campaign Progress - A Huge Provincial Win!

During the 2020 provincial election, the NDP included free transit for all children and youth 0-12 for all transit systems in BC, including TransLink, in their election platform. This win is the culmination of three years of intensive work on behalf of the #AllOnBoard campaign, allies, and many others. Implementing free transit for all children and youth 0-12 in every transit system in BC is included as a top priority in the mandate letters for the Minister of Transportation and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. This signals that this new policy is a significant priority for the government.

Campaign Progress - TransLink and Ticketing

In December 2020, significant progress was achieved after three years of lobbying and dialogue with TransLink about the impact of their fare evasion ticketing policy on low-income and marginalized youth and adults. As the beginning to the Executive Summary of the board report that addresses this issue specifies, this work was in direct response to the #AllOnBoard campaign. TransLink has proposed, for the first time ever, that a special fund is implemented for those who are low-income to apply to in order to have their tickets paid for in full by TransLink if they can’t pay them due to financial hardship. A diversity of community-based organizations will administer the applications and financial relief, and they are moving in the program design phase at this time. While TransLink will now also increase funding to their tickets program for non-profits, this program is very limited in scope and we continue to lobby TransLink to implement a sliding scale fare system based on income to ensure those of lesser means can access TransLink and do not receive tickets in the first place. It is a major win that the provincial government specified that both TransLink and all 53 transit systems under BC Transit must implement free transit 0-12, and we will continue to lobby TransLink and the provincial government to extend this to age 18.

December 2020 report on review of fare infraction FINS program and low-income transit riders (page 102).

[Excerpt]: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The intent of the Fare Infraction Review is to review the issue raised by #AllonBoard community advocates that fare infraction fines (“FINs”), as currently structured, disproportionately impact those who cannot afford to pay them. This review intends to identify options to address this concern, assess the impacts of potential changes to the fare infraction process, and arrive at a recommendation for next steps to address the concerns raised as appropriate.

#AllOnBoard Alliance

The #AllOnBoard campaign is an alliance of coalitions, organizations, community groups, advocates, unions, councillors, stakeholders, existing transit campaigns, and passionate communities and citizens from municipalities in Metro Vancouver and throughout BC, many of whom have put tireless energy and passion into driving the campaign forward on their own accord.The campaign is connected to the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition’s Community Action Network, a network of people with lived experience of poverty, and the campaign takes an organizing, people-centred and community-driven approach.

The following groups have officially endorsed the #AllOnBoard campaign:

UFCW, Community Action Network, BCTF, Society for Children and Youth of BC, First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, Burnaby Teachers Association, BEST (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation), Schula Leonard (transit advocate), Burnaby Community Services, Surrey Poverty Reduction Coalition, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, New Westminster and District Labour Council, Westcoast LEAF, PAN: Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education, Force of Nature, Wilderness Committee, Women Transforming Cities, Encompass Support Services Society, Abundant Transit BC, Car Free Vancouver, Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS), Single Mothers’ Alliance BC, Creating Accessible Neighbourhoods, UFCW 1518, DiverCity, Langley Children’s Committee, BC Health Coalition, Richmond Poverty Response Committee, Carnegie Community Action Project, Check Your Head, Transportation Choices (TRAC) - Sunshine Coast Regional District, BC Society of Transition Houses, BC Council for Families, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, The Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs (CIJA), Sustainabiliteens Vancouver.

Campaign Origins and History

In 2015, Black and racialized single mothers brought to the Single Mothers’ Alliance BC their stories of being profiled, ticketed and fined in front of their small children while accessing transit without tickets or monthly passes. The mothers were accessing provincial income assistance at the time. They could not afford to access the transit they needed to get everywhere they needed to go in Metro Vancouver with their children. Later, in 2016 and 2017, informed by Coalition member the SMABC, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition began gathering qualitative data and stories on an on-going basis about the experiences of low-income and marginalized communities accessing transit in Metro Vancouver, also partnering with TRRUST: Collective Impact and the Broadway Youth Resource Centre to gather information on the impact of lack of affordable transit on at-risk youth throughout BC.

The #AllOnBoard campaign was launched in 2018 during the municipal election period with the aim of securing candidates’ commitment to implementing the #AllOnBoard recommendations, if elected. Funding was secured, thanks to the support of the Vancity Community Foundation, to hire three Youth Leaders, all former youth in care with lived experience of mobility poverty, to mobilize and lobby on behalf of the campaign. The diligent youth leaders conducted speeches at city councils and many lobby meetings, sharing their impact stories and conducting effective advocacy to impact the campaign, also meeting with BC’s Representative for Children and Youth, Jennifer Charlesworth.

A successful event was held outside TransLink to raise awareness of the issue, with the Chair of the Mayor’s Council and many other politicians and stakeholders present.

Good media turnout at the rally outside TransLink

Good media turnout at the rally outside TransLink

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Mayor of New Westminster Jonathan Cote in an AOB prop bus

Early endorsers in 2018 included councillors in Port Moody, New Westminster, Vancouver, RIchmond, Burnaby and many other municipal councillors in Metro Vancouver elected that year. Following the municipal election, and working closely with elected councillors, 12 municipal motions were passed in support of the #AllOnBoard campaign. These motions resulted in further advocacy from municipalities to the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation and TransLink regarding affordable transit and fare evasion policies in Metro Vancouver. In 2019, the BCPRC expanded the campaign to target all transit systems in BC, including all those under BC Transit. Motions were then passed, some in collaboration with the campaign and others independently, with allies around the province in Nanaimo, the Sunshine Coast, Powell River, Victoria, Chilliwack and Whistler addressing various aspects of the campaign.

Diverse team of AOB presenters that landed the City of Vancouver #AllOnBoard motion
New Westminster City passes the AOB motion

At the start of the campaign, #AllOnBoard worked closely with TRRUST Collective Impact, which works with current and former youth in care, to facilitate presentations from three youth impacted by lack of affordable transit and fare evasion ticketing at a joint meeting of the TransLink board and Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation. With the support of Vancity Community Foundation funding, the three youth delivered very powerful testimonies about the impact of lack of affordable transit that impacted policy development to address ticketing at TransLink.

#AllOnBoard Youth Leaders waiting to present to TransLink and the Mayors’ Council
 
Indigenous AOB Youth Leader Krsytal on the way to Meet the Mayor of Burnaby

Indigenous AOB Youth Leader Krsytal on the way to Meet the Mayor of Burnaby

 
#AllOnBoard Youth Leaders and campaigners meet BC’s Representative for Children and Youth

#AllOnBoard Youth Leaders and campaigners meet BC’s Representative for Children and Youth

City of Vancouver Pilot Project Leads the Way in 2021

In 2019 and 2020, campaign staff worked closely with the City of Vancouver to develop a grant proposal to the provincial government and the Union of BC Municipalities for a poverty reduction pilot project that would focus on piloting the #AllOnBoard policy proposal. The funding application was successful, and the pilot project is in the planning stages right now and will be carried out over 2021. Please see below for media coverage of the pilot project when it was announced in 2020. 

Provincial Lobbying Success

In 2019 and in 2020 as well, the BCPRC and the Community Action Network met with ministers, deputy ministers and other senior staff about #AllOnBoard. Heather McCain of Creating Accessible Neighbourhoods, A.J. Brown and Marvin Delorme of the Community Action Network, and Viveca Ellis of the BCPRC comprised a diverse team with lived experience of the issue. They met with the following ministries: Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Ministry of the Attorney General, Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction, Green Caucus, senior policy staff from the Office of the Premier, Ministry of Children and Family Development, Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction were conducted as well.

In October 2020, the NDP included as part of their election platform a promise of free transit for all children and youth 0-12 in all transit systems in BC, including all systems under BC Transit, and TransLink.

Timeline and List of Motions Passed

  • September 12th, 2019: Richmond School Board

  • April 8th, 2019: City of Richmond

  • January 15th, 2019: City of Vancouver

  • January 28th, 2019: Vancouver Parks Board

  • March 4th, 2019: Vancouver School Board

  • April 1tst, 2019: City of North Vancouver

  • June 10th/February 15th, 2019: City of Burnaby

  • October, 2019: New Westminster School Board

  • November 20th, 2019: BCPRC and CAN members conduct intensive AOB lobbying in Victoria

  • December 3rd, 2019: City of New Westminster motion
    April 25th, 2019: Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation debate and motion

  • May 10th, 2019: #AllOnBoard Youth Leaders, BCPRC, and allies meet the Representative for Children and Youth, Jennifer Charlesworth

  • December 4 2018: City of Port Moody motion

  • UBCM 2019: failed

  • UBCM 2020: failed

  • October, 2019: Powell River School District

  • December 2019: Sunshine Coast Regional District

  • December 10th, 2019: Regional District of Nanaimo

  • December 1st, 2019: City of Victoria

  • August, 2019: City of Chilliwack

  • November 2019: City of Whistler

#AllOBoard spokespeople after a presentation to over 15 ministers, cabinet and caucus

#AllOBoard spokespeople after a presentation to over 15 ministers, cabinet and caucus

 
AOB on the steps of the legislature in Victoria

AOB on the steps of the legislature in Victoria

 
Grandmother Georgia represents Indigenous grandmothers raising grandchildren, with PRC staff, in a meeting with our former Minister of Children and Family Development about affordable transit, Indigenous youth and school attendance.

Grandmother Georgia represents Indigenous grandmothers raising grandchildren, with PRC staff, in a meeting with our former Minister of Children and Family Development about affordable transit, Indigenous youth and school attendance.

Media Impact

The AOB campaign has received a significant amount of media attention right from the start. Since the campaign is based on a community-centred, citizen-led organizing model, the voices and experiences of those most impacted were positioned front and center wherever possible. Below is a limited but representative sample of some of the media attention the campaign has received over the past three years.

Summary prepared by Viveca Ellis, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition

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