The heavily-subsidized universal bus pass used by University of Guelph students has been put in limbo after not enough students voted on a new agreement.
The school's Central Student Association and U of G administration were holding an emergency meeting with Guelph Transit officials Thursday to try to come up with a solution that would keep the heavily-subsidized transit pass available to roughly 16,000 students.
"They've got to come up with something or they've got a problem," Guelph Transit general manager Phil Meagher said late Wednesday, sounding more pragmatic than ominous.
He said a meeting was planned for late Thursday afternoon.
There is the possibility the universal bus pass could disappear, at least in the short term.
"It's definitely been mentioned by transit," said Scarlett Raczycki, local affairs commissioner for the U of G Central Student Association.
"It's our hope that we can come to a better agreement, at least in the interim, before another referendum can be held."
Since 1995 all undergrad students at the U of G have been part of the Universal Bus Pass that sees them currently pay $100 per semester for full use of Guelph Transit. Graduate students joined the plan in 2000.
Students pay roughly one third of the full price of a regular bus pass, but all students have to take it.
The current five-year agreement between the U of G and Guelph Transit is set to expire at the end of April. A new five-year agreement was negotiated, with the cost of the pass increasing by $50 over the next five years.
To ratify the new agreement, a referendum was placed on the ballots during the Central Student Association's general election held March 18-20 and 72 per cent of voters chose overwhelmingly to endorse the new deal.
Problem was, only 2,900 students voted, falling well short of the 4,000 needed for quorum, thus making the referendum null and void.
The CSA's own bylaws state that another referendum on the same question can't be held for at least a year.
Raczycki said voter turnout was down roughly 3 per cent over last year's election.
"We have some issues around the quorum not being met. We have a meeting planned about our options moving forward," Raczycki said.
"Effectively we can't sign the agreement currently because our electoral bylaws policy state that we have to have quorum in order for the referendum to pass. So there will be discussion to see what we can do to move forward."
One of the options, the CSA says, is to try and negotiate a cost of living increase for the next year until another referendum can be negotiated, but there is no guarantee Guelph Transit will accept that.
"It's just what we can do in the interim" until another referendum can be held, Raczycki said.
