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One of the largest barriers to sustainability in Canada is the use of motor vehicles as a primary means to get around. It comes with the landscape: a large nation with cities scattered all across it. But is all that driving really necessary?

In British Columbia, hundreds of people make the 45-minute journey twice daily along the highway between Vernon and Kelowna. If the only mass transit available, a greyhound bus, traveled between the two cities more than six times daily and did not cost twelve dollars each way then a lot more people would take that instead of polluting the air with the fifteen-to-twenty litres of gasoline burned by a midsize car during the round trip.

Vancouver is a similar case. Thousands of commuters travel from the residential townships that make the Greater Vancouver Area to the City of Vancouver. The transit system to get most of these people to work and back in a reasonable time exists, but only one in every six Vancouverites use it. Instead, they pay more than seven hundred dollars each month to fuel, maintain, and pay for a vehicle when a three-zone adult transit pass is on the order of a hundred dollars per month.

As a result of these cases and those of other cities, tremendous amounts of energy are wasted in moving people and we as a nation remain one of the worst emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world. Also, we remain privy to gas prices for our transportation costs.

The most effective solution to this waste and dependency is to mandate that all public transportation in Canada be free for anyone to use.

Transit is already heavily subsidized and the fee to ride is nominal. The inconvenience of having to carry change or buy tickets or a pass in advance is more of a detriment to using transit than the price itself. Therefore removing the nominal price of a ride has only a minor impact on the revenue of a transit system.

One immediate impact would be an improvement in safety. People that are intoxicated or otherwise unable to drive would always have an alternative to get home and no excuse not to use it. Nobody would have to drive to get home if they are unable to drive safely. Also, there would be less pressure on international tourists that may be unused to Canadian roads and laws to rent a car and drive.

Likewise, the convenience of being able to get anywhere with a large population in Canada for free would make an excellent tourist magnet. Canada will soon host her third Olympic games. There will be plenty of people from outside

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