Thanks to your thousands of signatures and all the hard work put in by the UVic Students' Society, Camosun College Student Society, UVic Graduate Students' Society, Royal Roads University Student Association and the Canadian Federation of Students, a huge success has been achieved in the WE RIDE Student Action for Public Transit campaign.
When it unveiled the 2008 provincial budget on February 19th, the BC government announced that effective April 1st, 2008, the local gas tax in Victoria will be raised by one cent. This money will go directly towards funding public transit in the Greater Victoria Area and it translates into another 3.5 million dollars worth of funding. When we delivered 12,000 signatures from Victoria and across the province to BC Minister of Finance Carole Taylor on January 31st, she listened to the demands of students and put them into the 2008 provincial budget.
Although we have worked hard for this success, there is more to be done. Now that the Victoria Regional Transit Commission has the money to provide better service, we want to make sure that they put that money where students and the community need it most. The Victoria WE RIDE team will continue to lobby the Transit Commission to make sure that we get more early morning and late-night service, more express routes, more trips and routes to the western communities and more linkages between campuses.
If you want to get involved in this successful and ongoing campaign, drop by your local student union office and talk to your elected representatives.
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