Introduction to Free Public Transit Initiative
00:00:16
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here in Amiskwitchi, Wisconsin, otherwise known as Edmonton, here in Treaty Six territory. And this week, we are talking about an idea that is gaining more and more steam, more and more traction. Everyone is talking about it. It's the push for fair, free, truly universal, truly public transit. And on the pod to discuss us with this today is Laura Cruz. Laura is the best part of the Kino Lefter podcast.
00:00:45
Speaker
Well, I mean, we're all socialists here, so I'd say we're all the best together. I know, I know, but I gotta gas you up, because you're on the pod. Kino Lefter's a great socialist movie podcast. It's really good, you should really listen to it. Abdul has been on the pod, I think he was like our second or third guest or something, too. Yeah, listen to Kino Lefter, definitely, and we're very lucky to have Laura on the show. She is not just a podcaster.
Creating a Connected City Through Transit
00:01:10
Speaker
in podcasting. Not just is a protected class. She's also an organizer with the Free Transit Edmonton campaign. Also with us today in studio, we have Paige Gorsack. Paige is an organizer with Climate Justice Edmonton and is also involved in the Free Transit Edmonton campaign. Hello. Paige and Laura, thanks so much for coming on the pod. Thank you.
00:01:29
Speaker
Okay, so I called it, you know, truly public transit, right? Universal, fare free, but kind of walk me, walk our audience through like what free transit means and what free transit Edmonton is trying to achieve.
00:01:43
Speaker
So I think we're thinking about it as transit freedom, like what is possible for our city, for folks to be able to get where they need to go, to be able to not just get to work or appointments, but to be able to move where they want to move, to see their friends, their family, and do so in a way that is accessible, that is safe, that is easy and functional, and that doesn't cost them hundreds of dollars every year.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say that our core kind of vision right now is that we're looking at creating a more connected, resilient and just city. So we're looking at the ways that transit serves as a place where we can talk about a lot of different issues and really make a huge impact on the day-to-day lives of so many Edmontonians.
Public Transit vs. Private Interests
00:02:34
Speaker
And so at the end of the day, what we're talking about is you want to be able to jump on a bus. You want to be able to jump on a train, not have to worry about it. It's just a piece of public infrastructure that gets you from point A to point B and we all pay for it. We all maintain it in common.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. We want to see mass transit as the most reliable and convenient, accessible option for everybody and for people to feel like ownership over this essential public service. And paying for things at the point of entry, we don't expect that at any other kind of public service. We wouldn't expect that at the doctor's office or dropping your kids off for school unless, you know,
00:03:12
Speaker
We're using the voucher system now. What's the line from that Jackman article? It's like you don't pay to ride the elevator, right? Or you don't pay to ride an escalator at a mall. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and really bringing the idea of a truly public good back into people's brains. I feel like neoliberalism and capitalism over the last 70 years has just trained us to not think of public transit as a public good, even though public is right in the fucking name, right?
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the other thing to think about in terms of this idea around roads are public infrastructure, but the vast majority of times they are being built to serve the private interests like car companies and oil and gas, those kinds of things. And what would it look like if we had a service to traverse those public routes that was completely accessible and completely public?
00:04:06
Speaker
And we're also thinking about it on a long-term timeline of how folks are going to be mobile going into the future as we face down a climate crisis. I think it is really important to think about mobility and the reliance that we currently have on cars, the amount of money that we spend to make that easy for folks.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that cars also serve as this perfect metaphor for the kind of atomized lives that we live under neoliberal capitalism, because you know, we're all just getting into our separate little distinct pods that are moving us from our, you know, bachelor apartments to our jobs and then back again, whereas mass transit is this way that we can move together and, you know, interact with one another a lot more than we currently do.
Free Transit and Social Justice
00:04:52
Speaker
and Paige brought up an interesting point like we're like getting to the why, right? I think people can conceive of fair free transit. Like, I mean, I grew up in Calgary, we have a free fair zone and in downtown Calgary, you just hop on hop off, you don't even think about it. It's extremely convenient, extremely awesome. But there are like, it's not just about
00:05:12
Speaker
the things you've talked about. I mean, it's, it's a climate change issue, right? It's a, it's a, it's a racial justice issue. There's a reconciliation frame to this social justice. And there's just like straight up economics behind this as well. Like pick one of those out of the air and kind of like walk me through the argument.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's hard to know which one to start with, but honestly, all of them are so relevant. We talk about, to go with racial justice, what you mentioned first. We know that in our city, the rates of folks who are being ticketed for fair evasion are predominantly Indigenous folks. There is massive over-representation in the tickets that are handed out to look at stats, journal report.
00:05:55
Speaker
talked about how Indigenous folks make up 6% of Edmonton's population and yet make up 43% of the tickets that are handed out. And we see that it's constant. You talk to individuals and they talk about being profiled as they, you know, just walk through the train station. And those tickets are $250 for fare evasion, right? Whereas the fine for a parking ticket, say in Edmonton, is $50 or maybe even less, $35 in some places. Average 30, 35, sorry.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, wild. And it's what, $3.25 to pay for a fair and to find for not having it is $250? Totally. That is truly fucked. And I think the thinking around the creation of that very, very high fair is that they don't want people to just use it and then pay for that in lieu of buying a monthly pass.
00:06:47
Speaker
The fact is that putting those barriers up creates negative repercussions in terms of, you know, if you don't pay your fare evasion ticket, eventually that becomes a warrant, right? So if you're getting, basically the effects of these fare evasion tickets snowball and lead to increased criminalization, more empowerment of the kind of security apparatus that happens in our city.
Economic Mobility and Transit Access
00:07:15
Speaker
and if we just look at it from an economic justice perspective, folks living in poverty are the folks who are evading those fairs who are then facing these massive tickets, these next steps of criminalization, and it's an ongoing perpetual thing.
00:07:32
Speaker
And I think more broadly on the economic side, there is mountains of evidence that suggests that economic mobility is tied very directly to access to reliable transportation.
00:07:48
Speaker
So the more that people can kind of leave their isolated communities if they're kind of out in the outer burps or something like that and get to different places where they might be accessing different kind of work or the services that they might need, social workers, those kinds of things in the center of the city, there's positive repercussions as well as being able to spend more money in the community.
00:08:12
Speaker
Allow me to, uh, be a bit of a shitty person and play devil's advocate here. I mean, not to, not to like, I don't want to actually be devil's advocate, but like in the context of what you were just talking about, right? Some shitty counselor, some shitty bureaucrat could be like, well, Paige, uh, there's already a low income transit pass. Sure. Sure. Um, why does a low income transit pass suck compared to truly universal public transit?
00:08:37
Speaker
Well fun fact, to get that transit pass, the low income transit pass, you have to pick it up at a rec center. This is just like very base level, but a wild thing. You have to find a fucking rec center. There's like six total in the city. So say you live centrally, I live centrally. Like where is there, how do I even get there? How do I get there during our open hours? Why do I have to fill out these mountains of paperwork, prove my worth as a person to be able to get on the bus?
00:09:05
Speaker
That's that's how it's set up and it's yeah, I don't know. Yeah, there's no you can slam means testing I'm not trying to like I'm not trying to justify being a shitty devil That's only at a yeah just as a point of interest that it is that fucking difficult to get that pass but on top of it
00:09:28
Speaker
We are now again putting up another barrier as Laura talked about these are constant barriers We erect them all the way around around transit this public transit And it makes it so folks don't even want to ride it I know so many people who are just like oh I I would ride the bus I feel guilty about not riding the bus and it's just it's it's too much to try and figure it out Let alone if you are already facing some of those barriers that related to poverty or well-income
00:09:55
Speaker
Totally. And I think that going off of what Paige said, the other thing about means testing is that if your cutoff is whatever 35K say, and you make 36, are you all of a sudden like rolling in dough? No.
00:10:11
Speaker
You're not meeting this arbitrary requirement that somebody has just decided is the cutoff point for you being the deserving poor or not. And it just puts a lot of working people in the situation where they're even further made precarious. And making it universal just takes all these steps out of the way. It's good for everybody. It gets rid of the stigma around having to access
00:10:38
Speaker
programs and will incentivize transit to be viewed as this essential public good that deserves investment and deserves everybody working together to make it better.
Challenges with Transit Costs and Quality
00:10:50
Speaker
And going off that, you know, you're pointing to ridership and we know that ridership comes up constantly in the municipal policy conversations of why transit can't be better, like why, you know, they have to keep increasing fares is because ridership is low. But we also know that there are reasons that ridership continues to drop as you hike prices, as you cut services like we're looking at with our transit redesign. It is not incentivizing folks to get on the bus or want to
00:11:18
Speaker
fit that into their lifestyle or try and make room in their budget for, what, $1,200 a year for their bus pass?
00:11:24
Speaker
I love a public transit system that charges me more money every year but provides me shittier service. Not to mention that our fares right now are at 350, which I think is equivalent to Toronto, that has a much more robust system with a lot more coverage, to the point that a lot of people who live in the downtown core don't have cars. It's very rare to hear that. I'm one of the people that relies on transit almost exclusively, but there are so many times where
00:11:50
Speaker
I'll have a meeting somewhere and I will be like, I literally cannot rely on transit to get me here. Or I have to be willing to give up four hours of my day to get somewhere that will take me 15 in a cab. Insane. So you brought this up earlier, Laura. I think it's worth kind of revisiting. Again, I'm going to be the shitty devil's advocate. I'm going to be like, where's your 40 page business plan? Show me the economics of why this is a good idea.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, so I think that a business plan, first of all, this is a public good. I don't think that we should be even considering it in these business terms. This is something that will, in the long term, help us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Sproul and Edmonton and Calgary, in particular, have contributed to them becoming the number one and two producers of greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the country.
00:12:45
Speaker
So I think that when we're looking at these declarations of climate emergency and all these other things, that's not something that you apply a business plan to. Did Edmonton declare a climate emergency? They did, yeah. And they have plans to be carbon neutral by 2050.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, and there are also plans to get 50% of the cars off the road by then as well. So I mean, it's a no brainer. But I think that in response to the why don't I have a 40 page business plan or why don't we at Free Transit have a 40 page business plan?
00:13:18
Speaker
We are looking right now to organize a base of people in the city, a base of transit riders and have them become an important person to consult or important group to consult and
00:13:34
Speaker
be a force of power in the city. And I think that the city itself, the city has an administration for the sake of looking into these things, for the sake of figuring these things out. And I think that it's unfair to demand of a bunch of, you know, activists who are giving their time and labor and their own money to come up with all the answers when the answers exist all over the place and they have people at the city who are paid to do that. And they work for us. It's not the other way around.
00:14:04
Speaker
Well then, that's a great segue into Free Transit Edmonton, right? This is a group, it's new, it's getting off the ground now, you've got buttons. I got a button, I'm wearing it right now. And it's Free Transit Edmonton, it's not Free Transit YEG, I just wanna clarify. We're not about that, social media hashtag bullshit. It's about building real power.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the airport sign we actually were originally free transit yag, but I think one of our hashtag might still be free Yeah, I mean if you're on the Twitter and you're talking about it's a good hashtag I'm just saying the name of the campaign is not free transit.
Advocating for Free Transit in Edmonton
00:14:40
Speaker
Free transit egg. It's like a shitpost. But this is an organization, or a proto organization, a group of people who are gathering regularly, and the goal is, as you said, to build power, right? And it's about being able to put pressure on the city to get your end goal, right? Which is free transit, like it's in the fucking name.
00:15:00
Speaker
Free and good. That's the thing that we always want to hammer home. We can't be talking about just making the fares free and keeping things as is. This is a long-term project looking at investment in this service. And with that, we're not just looking at it from an economic justice lens. It's not just about the cost. It is about all of the ways that folks deserve to have mobility in their city that need to be
00:15:27
Speaker
anti-racist that need to be free from violence that need to be in line with our climate goals like these are free transit is the the name but it's not just about that that cost it is about so much more than that
00:15:41
Speaker
I mean, it is a bit of a MacGuffin. It solves a lot of problems, especially if we actually build a transit system that is good and that people want to ride. What is that stupid quote about how the sign of a healthy society is when rich people ride the bus or something?
00:15:58
Speaker
Well, but it is true. Like I think of, you know, the amount of investment in the city to parking lots and parking. And there was that whole big Twitter fight a couple of years ago. Is it David Staples? And he really wanted all the parking lot, whatever. But, you know, we, we, we know that a good city is one where folks are wanting to get around, wanting to be in different areas, are able to get there, are able to take their kids there, are able to get there as a senior person with mobility issues. It's just, it's, it can't be, um, yeah, a service that we forget about.
00:16:27
Speaker
And don't let me stop you from insulting David Staples. This is a David Staples insult podcast. But. David Staples, drop your location. I'm getting on the bus right now. So, I mean, the other thing that, so this, this debate is, I mean, Free Transit Edmonton is, is organizing. They're starting to push this out into the world, but it's already kind of, we've already had some proto arguments around this, right? We've got a counselor, Aaron Paquette here in Edmonton has brought up
00:16:54
Speaker
Free transit as a concept, I think he had administration look into it and administration essentially gave him the jerk off motion. That's
Spending Priorities and Public Goods
00:17:02
Speaker
my analysis of it. And Aaron Piket also tried to bring up free transit on election day for the federal election. And I believe he was shut down in Edmonton. However, Edmonton was shown up by the cities of Fort McMurray, Lethbridge, Red Deer, as well as a number of BC communities like the Cowichan and Comox Valley and Nanaimo had free transit on election day.
00:17:24
Speaker
Edmonton for some reason what the fifth or sixth largest city in the country was like actually nah nevermind I think that why city council this is my Analysis of why city councilors didn't vote for that is because there's been this rumbling of free transit They basically didn't want to open that door So their official excuses it would cost like I don't know a hundred and fifty thousand dollars or something like that which
00:17:49
Speaker
To me, as an individual person, yeah, it's a lot of money. But when we're talking about infrastructure projects on the scale of billions in the city, it is absolute pennies. Well, what do we spend on, I know one of Jim's favorite subjects, fireworks every year. Oh, fuck. I'm so curious. Tell us.
00:18:06
Speaker
No, I don't have the number in front of me, but it's more than $150,000 or whatever we would have spent on free transit for one day for all of Edmonton. And you know what? Fireworks are nice, but I do think that there are so many things we spend so much money on. Like how much money do we give Daryl Cates? Fuck face. I don't have so much money every year.
00:18:23
Speaker
I was doing some reading on this and so when they put in the ice district in the center of downtown, obviously pushing out lots of folks from the center of the city in favor of this, you know, glittering temple to the oily boys, they
00:18:44
Speaker
They made a sweetheart deal with the Cates Group that in lieu of property taxes, they would pay a rent of $250,000 a year. That is millions of dollars for the next 35 years. So if you consider how little $250,000 is over the scale of 35 years, this is peanuts to a literal billionaire. And in Calgary, when they did a similar deal with
00:19:14
Speaker
I always want to say Murray Bookchin, but it's not Murray Edwards. When they did a similar deal to, at the same time as cutting $60 million out of their municipal budget, they have, I'm so curious as to what is going to be resulting out of this because they didn't even publicize what the amount they're taking out is. So I bet you it is going to look horrendous.
00:19:43
Speaker
compared to what they're doing. And this is the power of these billionaires in our cities, because they'll just basically threaten, oh, we're going to take the flames out of Calgary if you don't give us these things. And they have so much power and control. And we really need to ask ourselves, who is this city for? Is this city for Daryl Cates? No, it is for all of us. And that is the thing that we should be insisting on at every opportunity.
00:20:10
Speaker
And insisting on with our city councilors, right? I mean, let's put city council, Edmonton City Council on notice, right? Like the idea that you're not gonna be able to get away from the concept of free transit. We will be bringing it up, whether it's free transit on election days or free fare zones like Calgary already has, or just free fucking universal public transit. The fact that this campaign exists and that you're working with a group of folks working together to kind of build power on this idea is really incredible, really makes me happy.
00:20:38
Speaker
Um, one thing that I think is worth bringing up is that this is part of a wider struggle, right? Like this is not just happening in Edmonton. This is happening around North America, around the world. And just recently, I think we had an, a news story come out of Kansas city that the city of Kansas city, I think 600,000 people in the proper city, 202 million in the, in the Metro, we're getting free transit.
Lessons from Other Cities
00:21:00
Speaker
We've got, that's pretty comparable to Edmonton. So that's going to be really interesting to watch develop.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And then we've also got bigger American cities, like huge American cities, like Boston and Atlanta, starting the process of talking about free transit too. You've got, you know, leftists everywhere, like through however they get their news, getting news of this, sharing it, distributing it through your networks. You know, James Wilt, the writer, has a book coming out, not specifically about free transit, about transit in general, but I know free transit is going to be a big, huge part of it, right? This is a narrative that's gaining momentum.
00:21:30
Speaker
Definitely and I think that people are using the free transit model to also talk about other issues. So for example in New York City there was this really horrific video of a suspected fair evasion by a young black teen boy and the very violent arrest of him and that caused this
00:21:51
Speaker
this uproar and this outrage that people were able to connect over policing and criminalization and violence that is continually perpetuated on black people in the states and Canada to this issue of
00:22:07
Speaker
Free transit right if the transit was free it would take that out of the equation. It would make things safer for Transit operators as well because most assaults that happen on transit operators are due to fair disputes Yeah, I mean let's take a minute to talk about that I mean I believe there was an announcement just today You were telling me that the the amalgamated transit union national in Canada has come out in support of fair free public transit That's pretty fucking huge
Union Support and Economic Implications
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think that more and more folks are realizing that it's a win. It's a win for workers. It is a win for individuals, particularly for workers. If we're thinking about cities that are going to be connected into the future beyond our current climate crisis, we're going to need transit operators. This is a thing that they can get on board with. It's not about cutting driver jobs. It's actually about increasing them. It's actually about guaranteeing them. And that goes for workers across industries that are connected to transit.
00:23:06
Speaker
And if you're a bus driver, do you really give a shit whether someone has a ticket or is dropping $3.25 into the fucking bucket or not? 350, Duncan? 350, sorry. I just buy the ticket packs. And speaking specifically of Edmonton in this kind of worker justice conversation, the city is also looking at, in addition to their redesign where they're consolidating a lot of the community routes,
00:23:33
Speaker
into more frequent service on the major routes, this will impact the ways that people are able to get to their neighborhood bus stop. So, um, whereas it used to be, you know, a two minute walk to get to a bus stop, it's now going to be, you know, 10 blocks. And they're looking at solutions to this, which bring in privatization. So they're looking at this first kilometer, last kilometer, um, model where they bring in this public private partnership into, um, you know,
00:24:01
Speaker
Fill in the gaps on these routes rather than than having it as the in the public infrastructure all the way through Yeah, like paying uber to get people to a bus station or whatever, right? And and that's that was on the table and we fought against that with the transit union here in Edmonton a couple years ago and people did not fucking like it people did not like the idea of privatizing public transit and the fact that like
00:24:23
Speaker
Ivison and this kind of this council that we have in Edmonton is so gung-ho on this like terrible idea is Is quite shocking and gives motivation to not only you know free transit Edmonton But anyone listening to this podcast that like this next municipal election is actually in a fucking matter and it's an opportunity to have a city council here in Edmonton that is not shitty and
00:24:46
Speaker
And I mean, even just to go off that Duncan, like thinking about the folks that that impacts that first kilometer, last kilometer. Like if you, you know, we were talking, one of the partners or one of our partners for this campaign is SALT, the Seniors Action and Liaison Team. And they got in touch with us looking at the rates for seniors passes that are going up on February 1st that are tripling their annual pass in cost.
00:25:12
Speaker
and their pass for monthly is also going up and so for those folks they're looking at not only like a triple in the cost that it you know the cost for them to take transit but also now walking 10 blocks to get to that bus like how does that become you know how does that serve anyone and
00:25:31
Speaker
It just means you're stuck at home, really. I mean, that is the last mile first mile stuff with regards to this, specifically the city of Edmonton is fucked up and we definitely got to keep an eye on it. But the broader conversation here is interesting and ongoing, right?
Political Advocacy for Free Transit
00:25:45
Speaker
And we had a public figure here in Canada who I think is kind of growing.
00:25:50
Speaker
in stature and his platform is growing, Matthew Green. He's in NDPMP from Hamilton, Ontario. He's on the Free Transit bandwagon. He had a shareable graphic that went around recently that was everywhere, kind of in leftist circles for like a week or two. And I'll read the quote and I'll kind of give some of the stats that are attached to it. So quote, publicly funded free transit is not a radical idea. We already publicly fund transit. We just underfund it and fares make up the difference.
00:26:19
Speaker
Free transit just means properly funding public transit with public money, and we get it by taxing the rich. Then we can eliminate fares for everyone, massively reducing carbon emissions, congestion, and the cost of living.
00:26:31
Speaker
Go off king So I think that There's a there's a union in Toronto. It's Kewpie I think 30 might be wrong on that they work there early the electrical workers on the Toronto Transit Commission the TTC and they put out a release about their support of free transit where they called fares a tax on the working class and
00:26:56
Speaker
And I think that that's exactly right because if we're looking at this underfunded service and we're seeing that, you know, at any point, as soon as a government starts underfunding a public service, the costs don't just disappear. They just get downloaded back onto individuals and that's just not acceptable.
00:27:17
Speaker
And we've got a graphic here too that actually lays out how much each city is paying in fares versus public funding. Edmonton, 39% of the public transit funding comes from fares. Calgary, 50% of the money comes from fares, which blows my mind. Like Montreal, 46. Winnipeg, 60. Ottawa, 45. So they're all kind of in that rain. Matthew Green is right. We are underfunding public transit. We're making up the difference with fares.
00:27:44
Speaker
of our public service, you know, this is a, it is a public service. We have other public services and you, you don't pay for them. And we're moving towards that, you know, public libraries. You don't have to pay for a library card in Edmonton. Come on down. But other, other services we've already talked about them, elevators, whatever. There are, they're public for a reason. And the more we push towards privatization, the more of a problem we have for all of our community members. And it's something that we need to push back against.
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the other part of, I mean, the very bottom of Matthew Green's meme or shareable graphic here is government already pays for transit. If we actually taxed the rich, we could have free transit. And that like class war stuff, I mean, I am definitely here for it. And yeah, like I think anyone who takes transit is much closer to, I don't know, like the people who they are riding transit with than any like fucking millionaire.
00:28:41
Speaker
and building solidarity amongst each other. And it is a common experience. It is like the commons, right? And I'm grateful that Free Transit Edmonton is actually starting to have those conversations.
Wealth Inequality and Infrastructure Investment
00:28:54
Speaker
we have the greatest wealth inequality in the country. The top 1% makes more than the bottom 50% by a lot. We should be doing everything in our power to rectify this situation because it has far-reaching effects. Investment in public transit also means that in the long run, we can look at the ways that we are
00:29:20
Speaker
diversifying our economy away from oil and gas, which is the sunset industry, it's just the facts, right? So I think that when we look at things like how much the oil and gas companies are not paying in their municipal taxes all across the country, if we look at the sweetheart deals that are being given out to these billionaire blood suckers that are taking funding out of municipal lines, then we can clearly see that this is an issue of class warfare.
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah. And there's so many interest groups that are put above average citizens, you know, whether it is, yeah, whether it is oil and gas or whether it is the chamber of commerce or, uh, you know, the developers, the CFIB, blah, blah, blah. I mean, pick your, the, the Canadian taxpayers' Federation.
00:30:08
Speaker
And we know that those are going to be our opponents in this push. But we also know that there are a million citizens in Edmonton, folks who want to be able to get around and who are already pissed. People are already pissed about transit in Edmonton. And that's something that we all know.
How to Get Involved and Support the Movement
00:30:23
Speaker
I don't think that you could go on Twitter or on any kind of social media and not see someone complaining about the bus. And yeah, we're not here to say like, yeah, it's great now. But we are here to say that
00:30:35
Speaker
you deserve it to be better, and you deserve it to be cheaper, and in fact, for it to be free. Yeah, no, I think that's a fantastic way to end it. It's that time of the show where people get to plug their pluggables and talk about how people can find you online. Laura, what do you want to push here? I mean Free Transit Edmonton, but also your podcast probably?
00:30:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you can definitely check out Kino Lefter. We're a socialist podcast that talks movies. We have a weekly free episode and then one that's behind a paywall that is actually less than a fare on the ETS per month. So it's great value. You can't beat that.
00:31:14
Speaker
I really want to say that we're really hard at work on Free Transit Edmonton and follow us on Twitter. We're there at Free Transit YEG, Y-E-G, and our website should be coming soon. Yeah, early February.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, Paige, you can follow me on Twitter. My Twitter handle is Paige Goresack, G-O-R-S-A-K. And then I would also just throw in a plug for Climate Justice Edmonton. So this campaign is a campaign under the CJE banner. So for folks who want to stay up to date, you can follow us at
00:31:52
Speaker
CJ Edmonton on Twitter also on Facebook on Instagram everywhere all the way and if people want to get involved with free transit Edmonton What's the best way to get a hold of you or the campaign?
00:32:04
Speaker
So you can definitely email us at freetransitedmontonatgmail.com. Right now we're in the process of getting ready for a transit week. So if you want to take part in the transit week challenge, we're going to be announcing that pretty soon. That's going to run from February 17th to 22nd, where we challenge all our city councillors to take transit for a week so that we can bring up issues of the underfunding and the ways that the service could be improved.
00:32:31
Speaker
and we are opening that up to absolutely everyone in the city to take part and share their stories of how transit is impacting them.
00:32:37
Speaker
So Duncan can I ride the bus during that transit week challenge? Yes. Email me, hit me up on Facebook. I mean, I usually, I walk to work with, with my dog, Bruce, who shout out to Bruce. He's in the corner there having a nap, but, um, no, thanks so much. Transit is also for dogs. Dogs on the bus. I know that you can have a dog on a TTC and, you know, saw the pictures, dog in an Ikea bag. Yeah.
00:33:01
Speaker
But we will bring that up if that is something that's of interest to you. But yeah, for serious, if you want to get involved, you can reach out to us by email and also watch our website. We'll be up in early February and that's going to have all the ways, whether you have deep pockets and want to support us or whether you want to be organizing on the ground or whether you just have thoughts about free transit and why it matters to you.
00:33:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's a People Power Movement. Get involved. If you like this idea, give these folks an email and definitely get in touch with them. Also, if you like this podcast and you want to hear more of them.
00:33:36
Speaker
There's a lot of things you can do to support us. You can do the easy things first. Share our content. I know Laura's going to be sharing this podcast after it's live, like a good podcaster. But one other thing that really helps us is rate, review, subscribe. If you're not subscribed, please subscribe.
00:33:56
Speaker
leaving a rating on Apple Podcasts is actually really helpful. It really matters to their stupid algorithm. So if you can take the time, two minutes, to just be like, yo, this show is awesome on Apple Podcasts, that really does mean a lot. The other thing that really matters a lot to us is money. If you like this podcast, you wanna keep hearing it. Join the 250 other folks who help keep this independent media project going. You can go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons, put in your credit card, become a monthly donor. We would really appreciate it.
00:34:24
Speaker
Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, comments, things you think I need to hear about, I'm on Twitter, at Duncan Kinney, and you can reach me by email, at DuncanK, at ProgressAlberta.ca. Thanks so much to Cosmic Family Communist for the amazing theme. Thanks again to Paige and Laura for coming on the show. Thank you for listening, and goodbye.
00:34:42
Speaker
Did you know that Progress Alberta is part of a national community of leftist podcasts on the Ricochet Podcast Network? You can find the Alberta Advantage, 49th Parahel, Kino Lefter, Well Reds, The Progress Report, Lefy Sales, Out of Left Field, and Unpacking the News, as well as a bunch of other awesome podcasts at Ricochet Media or wherever you download your podcasts.