City council unanimously votes to bring in bus passes for refugees coming to Lethbridge

City council voted unanimously Tuesday to offer free bus passes to refugees. City Councillor Ryan Parker brought forward a motion that will see passes be handed over the next six month to any refugees arriving in Lethbridge this year. Parker says funding for this initiative is coming from the council contingency fund.

“I am glad I could do it on behalf of the community because I don’t think anyone in this community would ever begrudge a free bus pass to refugees coming to our community. At times the buses are sometimes under capacity so, we do have the capacity from what I’ve been told by our administration so, there is a hard cost to this for sure and it’s $90,000. I think if it’s fully utilized and I think that’s a win win too because the buses are being used, and these folks are getting from point A to point B helping their lives become a little bit more normalized, so I am just glad. I think the community would be proud of this one as well,” said Ryan Parker, City Councillor, for the City of Lethbridge.

The hope is this program will be up and running by next week.