After months of negotiation with the HSR, the McMaster Students Union has reached an agreement with the transit organization to offer two options for service improvements to McMaster students.
With student electoral support, McMaster’s student bus pass could include extended service for Route 51-University, a 12-month bus pass, or both.
MSU President David Campbell and VP (Finance) Jeffrey Doucet represented students in the meetings.
Doucet wrote a memo to the Student Representative Assembly detailing the options.
“Our goal has been to negotiate fair options for service increased and then present them to students through referendum,” he said.
Current McMaster bus passes are included in student fees and cost each student $126.50—equivalent to 145 per cent of the price of a monthly adult pass.
Campbell said that discussions kept in mind the current bargain.
“Here at Mac we do get a pretty good deal on the bus pass, when you think about the cost,” he said. “We were just looking for add-ons and improvements.”
Two options will be voted on by students pending SRA approval, which would include additional costs voted into effect.
A motion will be brought before the SRA to add the issue as a referendum during the MSU presidential election in January. Whatever changes are voted in by students will be implemented in Sept. 2014.
One option is enhanced service on Route 51-University. For an extra cost of $6.50 per student, the 51 will increase its frequency between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to every 10 minutes, rather than the current 15. Also included in this option is increased service between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Presently, the last 51-University of the night runs through campus around 11p.m.
Route 51-University would be the first bus in Hamilton to run until 3 a.m.
“If a student takes the bus once during their school year as opposed to taking a cab, they will have earned their money back on their investment,” said Doucet.
The other option is a 12-month bus pass. For an additional $6.00 per student the student bus pass would be extended from an 8-month to a full-year pass.
Regarding the summer extension, Doucet said, “We believe we have delivered incredible value for students as this represents just over two bus rides paying by cash.”
The per student cost of the service enhancements will be made possible because the HSR will contribute funds to the improvements as well.
Increased service of the 51-University will cost approximately $240,000. McMaster student fees will pay for $140,000 and the HSR will cover the other $100,000.
Once the issue comes to referendum, McMaster students will vote for one of several options moving forward.
Students can vote to keep the current eight-month pass at 145 per cent of the adult monthly rate, pay $6.50 more, per student for enhanced 51-University service, pay $6.00 more for a 12-month pass, or vote to adopt both changes and incur an extra cost of $12.50 per student. They may also vote to reject all agreements and have no bus pass in Sept. 2014.
Negotiations have been ongoing since before the start of the school year.
“We met almost once a month from August until now,” said Doucet.
He continued, “I think the reaction will be pretty positive…we’re going to be trying to educate students about the options, that we think are a really good value, and let them decide.”
Campbell agreed, saying “We tried to get the best deal to put in front of people, ultimately it’s up to the students, but I think the deals are really good.”
The McMaster Students Union has released audits of its financial statements, showing the state of the union’s money from the past academic year.
The MSU, a multi-million dollar organization, is responsible for maintaining a number of services and organizations across campus, which is done through the accumulation of student fees from each full-time undergrad. It collects additional funds through its businesses, including Union Market and the Underground.
“KPMG combed through all the financials of the past twelve months,” explained MSU VP (Finance) Jeff Doucet of the process. The external auditing firm was called in, as part of standard procedure, to assess the organization’s financial health.
The audits were publicly released at the end of October and were put up for discussion at a meeting of the Student Representative Assembly on Nov. 3. Representatives took the opportunity to pick through the details of the reports, asking questions of the VP Finance before ultimately voting to approve the documents.
The MSU finished the 2012-13 academic year with a surplus of more than $300,000. While this represents only about three per cent of the MSU’s operating budget of $12,235,578, as a registered not-for-profit organization it is meant to be completely revenue neutral.
Doucet acknowledged the need for a plan for the extra money, as recommended by the external auditors.
“We need an actual capital growth plan. That’s a plan we don’t necessarily have right now,” he said.
While the organization as a whole ran a surplus for the year, certain services within the MSU saw a deficit in 2012-13, among them the Emergency First Response Team, the McMaster dental plan, and Compass Information Service.
Compass, for example, saw a drop in revenue of about $600,000 and ran an overall deficit of $30,486.
“GO Transit has moved to Presto cards, which is very convenient for students, but obviously it’s resulted in less revenue for Compass—when we sell tickets at Compass we’re earning a percentage of revenue,” explained Doucet.
On the other hand, McMaster’s campus radio station, CFMU, finished the year with a surplus of $193,785, a significant portion of the organization’s revenue, most of which comes from a portion of student fees. However, McMaster students voted in January 2013 to decrease the levy given to CFMU from $17.45 per student to $12.50, which is buy viagra soft tabs expected to eliminate the large surplus in future.
The results of the audit are publicly available, accessible on the MSU website.
Jeff Doucet
MSU VP-Finance
Last week, Stephen Harper flew to Brussells to sign a Free-Trade agreement with the European Union. After Harper secured the support of all ten Premiers, Canada has reached an agreement in principle to sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with our viagra and canadian European peers. The full-text of the agreement has yet to be released, but the agreement has already been supported in principle by both the Liberal and New Democratic Party.
This is remarkable, as it was only twenty-five years ago that Free-Trade was a divisive election issue. However, since the Mulroney government’s implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement brought nation-wide economic growth and diversification, all federal parties now support free trade.
While we have yet to find out the finer details of the agreement, we know enough to start talking about its benefits and what it means for our local economy in Hamilton. When hearing about government initiatives such as CETA, it is easy to hear large, broad statements such as “12 billion annually” or “80,000 new jobs” and not really know what it means.
While the industry has taken a hit, Hamilton has remained a local economy supported by a manufacturing sector. Contributing billions of dollars to the national economy, Hamilton’s manufacturing sector makes up roughly 4 per cent of the province’s GDP. Several major industries such as automotive parts dominate the local economy while other important industries are growing rapidly. Green automotive technology in particular has the potential to grow and produce innovative, exportable products. The federal government and McMaster University demonstrated this commitment to green automotive technologies with the recent opening of the McMaster Automotive Research Centre. The research centre will collaborate with the private sector to develop, design, and test innovative hybrid technology.
With our globally recognized research-intensive universities, Canada has the ability to pair local industry with Post-Secondary Education and deliver commercial and economic success.
We all know that large-scale, simplified manufacturing has left North America for good. Other countries with lower wages and lower environmental standards will continue to hold the advantage in mass producing simplified goods. Because of partnerships like MARC, Canada will continue to hold the comparative advantage is in the advanced manufacturing of complicated, innovative technologies. But here is the thing: on a global scale, the Canadian automotive sector is relatively small. If you are a company that is producing technology that will one day be hidden under the hood of a car, you need unrestricted access to the global market to truly prosper.
The EU is the world’s second largest producer of automobiles, producing over 16 million cars, trucks and vans in 2012. To put this in perspective, last year Canada nearly produced 2.5 million automobiles. While Canadian auto-parts companies can currently sell their product in Europe, they face barriers to entry. CETA will eliminate EU tariffs on auto parts, which currently run up to 4.5 per cent. With the implementation of CETA, local companies in Hamilton will have an important leg up over competitors in other countries. Volkswagen while assembling a car in Germany could can now use Canadian technology at a lower price.
This example of how our local economy will benefit illustrates the importance of CETA, and the impact it will have on other industries and local economies. As tariffs as high as 22 per cent are lifted on our industries, Canada will continue to grow as a world leader in the trade of our unique goods.
Whether these goods are lumber exports from Northern Quebec, shrimp from the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, mineral production in Nunavut, or software technology in British Columbia, local economies across Canada stand to benefit from increased access to five hundred million consumers in the European Union.
After paying tuition, many students may not know what happens to their money. But organizers within the McMaster Students Union are working to see that changed, and show students what happens to their fees.
The finance committee of the MSU has proposed changes to a bylaw that would see student groups have their levies put up to referendum on a regular basis. The bylaw in question deals specifically with the five non-MSU, non-university organizations that currently receive a portion of student funding.
“What this bylaw essentially does is give [students] more information on where their money is going,” said Daniel D’Angela, MSU Finance Commissioner and Social Science SRA representative.
The groups that fall under this category are Ontario Public Interest Research Group, McMaster, Engineers Without Borders, Incite Magazine, the McMaster Solar Car, and the McMaster Marching Band. The money these five groups collect from the student body amounts to $10.86 for each full-time student.
And despite the enthusiasm of key players within the MSU, the groups affected have come out in vocal opposition of the motion.
“It’s an inefficient way to consult students,” said Lexi Sproule, co-president of the McMaster chapter of Engineers Without Borders of the proposed system.
Under the changes, EWB and the other four organizations would have their levy put on the presidential ballot as a referendum for students to vote on every three years.
“It’s not very in-depth feedback,” said Sproule. “Even if you get approved, you don’t know if students have any issues with how you run things. It’s so much energy for feedback that’s kind of superficial.”
Proponents of the referendums disagree.
“I don’t think that once every three years having to spend two weeks going out and telling students about what you do, I don’t think it’s that taxing,” said Jeff Doucet,
EWB currently collects 37 cents from every full-time undergraduate student. While not making up their entire budget, the approximately $7700 it receives goes directly to funding students participating in the Junior Fellowship Program, a four-month volunteer placement overseas.
While the dollar amount per student is small, the effect the potential loss is on some of the organizations is significant.
“[Without the levy] I don’t think we’d be able to operate—that’s what keeps us going,” said Yuvreet Kaur, one of eight student board members of OPIRG McMaster.
OPIRG McMaster is one of a network of organizations across the province, which promotes social justice issues through grassroots organizing and through the funding of student and community-led working groups.
Of the five affected groups, OPIRG currently collects the largest fee, at $7.57 per student. However, the fee is refundable within three weeks of the drop and adds date in September.
“We give students the opportunity to take that money if they need it or if they don’t support the work we do,” explained Kojo Damptey, also on the OPIRG Board.
”We’re the only organization on campus that does that.”
The threat of OPIRG McMaster losing its funding is not unheard of; other OPIRG chapters across Ontario, including those at the University of Toronto and at Queen’s University, have come under scrutiny through NOPIRG campaigns, which aim to abolish the system of contributing student fees to the organization.
In the case of Queen’s, NOPIRG organizer Stuart Clark told the Queen’s Journal he was opposed to the levy because of “the use of publically available funds for certain activities that don’t reflect the values of the entire community.”
Mac’s chapter, however, feels that its values align very well with the university.
“Our current president [Patrick Deane] talked about forward with integrity—we’ve been doing that for two decades here,” said Damptey. He emphasized that the working groups funded by the group, which address a range of social justice issues, are the product of student ideas.
“There are certain working groups that a lot of the McMaster population is familiar with,” echoed Board Member Sabeen Kazmi. “Other groups…like the McMaster Farmstand and MACycle started under OPIRG.”
OPIRG and the other four organizations involved are seeking not only to make students and SRA members aware of their role on campus, but also to voice their opposition to the process of the bylaw changes being made.
Sam Godfrey, co-editor-in-chief of Incite Magazine, expressed her concern with the idea of a referendum to determine fees.
“It’s hard to measure worth…by whether the majority of students read [Incite]. If you only funded things that the majority wanted, you wouldn’t have the same kind of community at Mac.”
However, D’Angela said that his impression was that the groups were in support of amendments.
“I met with them midway through the summer, the fee holders, and overwhelmingly, I’d say they agreed with increasing with transparency,” he said.
Sproule explained that while EWB is completely supportive of financial transparency, no mention of the proposed changes was made.
“All we heard was ‘great job’…what are we supposed to do with that? If we’d heard they had concerns, we’d be happy to change things,” she explained.
The bylaw changes were made within the Finance Committee but did not involve any further consultation with the groups.The process of amendment also didn’t involve notifying the groups when the motion was set to go to the SRA for voting; a system that was met with concern by OPIRG, Incite, and EWB, but to others was not problematic.
“If the finance committee decides to make a change because they feel we need more democratic input, should they notify the groups in advance that they make their change, before it goes public? I’m not sure if that will change the conversation that much,” said Doucet.
The discussion on the proposed changes will continue at the upcoming SRA meeting, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 29.
Despite the opposition raised by the five groups, who are expected to present at the meeting, D’Angela and Doucet stand by the Finance Committee’s suggestion.
“If students want to have democratic input, referendum is the most efficient way to do so,” said Doucet.
“We think that the students are smart, they are intelligent people and they’re able to weigh the pros and cons of any single vote,” explained D’Angela upon being asked about the effectiveness of a referendum.
“We think that students are able to make decisions if you give them the right information and give them the important information.”
Bus service changes were part of President David Campbell’s platform during the election race last January, and now he’s set to make good on those promises.
“The [Hamilton Street Railway] bus pass fee is triannual, so every three years we renew it with the HSR,” said Campbell. “Our current agreement is expiring in April, so it was already going to come to referendum in January. That’s what inspired me as part of my platform to say ‘there are a lot of improvements to service we could think about here.’”
The improvements Campbell is seeking give this year’s negotiations a different level of importance.
“In the past, when it was getting renewed, it was a lot of ‘let’s just renegotiate the cost for similar levels of service.’ But now we’ve taken a more aggressive approach in the sense of early on in the year we wanted to make contact with the HSR and say ‘we obviously want to renegotiate our current agreement, and where can we make some improvements,’” said Jeff Doucet, VP Finance.
The McMaster Students Union has prioritized what it hopes to accomplish, and an agreement regarding bus service for summer students tops that list. A Facebook poll found that students, too, overwhelmingly regard it as a chief concern. Thousands of students remain on campus in the summer taking classes or working, but currently the bus pass included in tuition expires at the end of April. Students taking classes can purchase a slightly discounted summer pass at Compass, but the rate it is significantly more expensive at $72 per month than the $63.08 students pay per semester in the Fall and Winter.
Also among the MSU’s priorities is extending bus service later into the night. That’s a concern that the HSR says it has heard from other groups in the community.
“We were surprised,” said Doucet. “We’re not the only people saying the buses aren’t running late enough. One o’clock, 1:20 a.m. is pretty early to stop the buses in a major city.”
“It’s a safety thing, too, right? It’s adequate provision of service,” added Campbell. “It’s not just drunk people getting home, it’s people getting home safely from the bars, from work, from wherever they might be.”
In addition to adding more bus service at night, the MSU would like to see current bus times changed to better service the university. Currently, the HSR increases the amount of buses through campus at busy times, but the increase is spread evenly throughout the hour rather than clustered around times when classes start or finish.
“Let’s look at the University 51 and say ‘this has been identified as a line for the university […] maybe this is the one we can play around with,’” said Doucet.
They are looking to other municipalities, such as Doucet’s hometown of Ottawa, as a guide for what service may be appropriate. However, they’re also keeping their expectations measured.
“[Changing the bus schedules] is a major change. That’s the one that sort of ranks lower in our priorities because we recognize how difficult it would be for the HSR to do,” said Campbell.
Still, a positive aura surrounds the discussions as a whole. “We’re getting along well and we’re really optimistic about what can happen. There’s been a lot of give and take,” said Campbell.
Hopefully come January, students will see some of these options on the ballot.
