Yellowknife ordered to pay back accessible transit users difference in fares
City was charging people using YATS more than people with disabilities using regular transit
The City of Yellowknife is getting its wrist slapped for continuing to discriminate against people with disabilities in its transit fares following a human rights ruling last September.
On Sept. 22, an N.W.T. human rights adjudicator ruled it was unfair of the City of Yellowknife not to offer a monthly pass to users of the accessible transit system, and ordered it to stop using a fare structure discriminating against persons using public transit on the basis of disability.
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The city then introduced monthly passes for the Yellowknife Accessible Transit System.
But the original complainant, Elizabeth Portman, went back to the human rights commission because the city continued to offer a discount to people with disabilities using regular transit — a $2 fare, when people with disabilities using YATS were paying $3 per fare.
Three days before the second hearing last week, the city lowered the fares for users of YATS to $2.
The adjudicator has ordered the city to pay back people who used YATS between September and January the difference in fares.
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with files from Hilary Bird