As TransLink celebrates the first anniversary of the Canada Line, it's also taking heat over a $1-million-per-year transit pass program giving free rides to employees and their family members.
TransLink employees, transit police and Coast Mountain Bus Company workers all ride the transit system for free -- and so does one member of each of their immediate families.
According to documents released by TransLink, in July there were more than 6,000 employee passes in circulation and 2,758 family passes. The passes are taxable, and not all employees choose to accept them.
Retired workers and their spouses are also offered a lifetime pass if they've worked in the system for more than two years.
"This started decades and decades ago, farther back then most folks can remember, and it was a way of helping them get to work," TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said.
As for the family passes, "The rationale back then, I think, was to get families a little bit more engaged in the business so that they could understand what Mom and Dad did when they went off to work," Hardie added
Transit workers in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto also ride for free, but not their family members.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says the system needs to be reviewed.
"It's unbelievable that so many people could be taking a free ride on the backs of hardworking, taxpaying families," the group's Maureen Bader told CTV News.
TransLink says that a review of the employee pass program is a possibility.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber
