As part of The Essentials Fund Committee’s ongoing support for local agencies and the community members they support, we are grateful to have been able to share the following letter with leaders on Regional Council regarding the importance of local transit affordability and the need to make transit more accessible to our community’s most vulnerable residents.
Members of Waterloo Regional Council,
On behalf of The Essentials Fund Organizing Committee, I am reaching out to ask that consideration be given to collaborating with Waterloo Region’s nonprofit sector to co-create a pilot program to provide a further discounted transit fare. This discounted transit fare would help to ease the financial burden for the many organizations who provide transit fare for their clients and where there is no budget for this expense.
Launched in March 2022 by a group of community volunteers, The Essentials Fund was created to support local Waterloo Region nonprofits with an unrestricted grant to provide essentials items needed by their clients to promote long term health and well being. Essential items include bus fare, hygiene products, menstrual products, weather appropriate clothing, food, backpacks and more. With administrative support provided by Waterloo Region Community Foundation, our committee has raised over one hundred-thousand dollars and provided dozens of grants to local nonprofits over the last three years of fundraising and granting,
Although the grant provided is unrestricted, The Fund’s application includes a question asking what items are needed by their clients. For the last three granting cycles, the most checked-off item is “bus fare”. Conversations with nonprofits have highlighted the essential role of a reliable, affordable transit system for their clients who rely on it as their primary means of transportation. Whether it is attending medical appointments, accessing social services, or participating in youth programs, transit fare often becomes a barrier for those who cannot afford it.
This information was shared with Mayor Dorothy McCabe who offered to hold a roundtable discussion with a group of nonprofit leaders to hear directly from them about the cost of providing transit fare as well as challenges and opportunities within the transit system. In February 2024, Mayor McCabe and Regional Councillors Chantal Huinink and Jim Erb met with nonprofit leaders to learn about their clients’ needs with respect to the transit system and fares. Follow-up from that roundtable discussion connected the participants with the current Grand River Transit review for its new 2025-30 business plan.
To be clear, The Essentials Fund does not speak for the nonprofit community. This work has provided us with a deeper understanding of the ongoing challenges nonprofit organizations face in meeting the growing needs of our community, particularly amid constrained funding. In this advocacy role, we believe the co-creation of a pilot program with the nonprofit community to provide a further discounted transit fare will ease some of the financial burden on the many organizations who try to provide transit fare for their clients when there is no budget for the expense.
We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this idea further with you as you consider priorities in your current budget deliberations. Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.
The Essentials Fund Organizing Committee
Jane Arnold, Allyson Kroetsch, Claire Anderson, Tom Galloway, Rose Greensides, Holly Manning, Eleanor McGrath, Mike Pereira
The Essentials Fund 
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