Halifax’s transportation committee gave seniors a bit of a reprieve on proposed bus fare increases on Wednesday, amending a proposal that would have eliminated their discount to instead study the effects of phasing it out over three years.

The committee did approve the proposal for an overall increase of 25 cents for all fares, including seniors, starting Sept. 30, and launching a six-month pilot program to allow children aged 12 and under to ride for free.

Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South Downtown) proposed the amendments, including a provision that the study also look at what percentage of seniors could not afford an increase.

“The first thing is to determine who our riders are and then find out where their needs are and ... look at a broader definition of what we mean by low income,” Mason said after the meeting. “Right now, it’s people below the low-income cutoff. That’s about two-and-a-half per cent of seniors. If you look at other measures, it could be 10 per cent of seniors, and I think we want to have a really broad support for that broader 10 per cent before we even talk about raising the seniors fare at all.”

The changes still have to go through regular council, although likely not at the next meeting on July 30.

Council previously approved a 25-cent fare increase to Halifax Transit’s standard adult fare. The $2.50 fare, which hasn’t been increased since September 2013, will be $2.75. The current seniors fare is $1.75.

The cost increase is to compensate for Halifax Transit’s operating budget of increased wages, increased fuel costs, service increases associated with the Moving Forward Together Plan and other factors, states a document submitted to the committee by Halifax Transit director Dave Reage and acting CAO Ken Stuebing.

Halifax Transit recommended eliminating the senior classification after reviewing other jurisdictions who don’t have separate fares for older people.

Marc Santilli, manager of technical services for Halifax Transit, suggested during the presentation to the committee that seniors resources have changed for the better over the years so that they are not so disadvantaged now as in the past.

“That was the research that we had found that indicated the case, yes,” he told media after the meeting, but he could not cite the source off the top of his head.

He said Halifax Transit expected a lot of push-back but he felt phasing in the increase makes sense.

During committee discussion, Reage told members it would cost $300,000 to run the pilot project for children to ride free. Mason said the city will be able to find that despite not having immediate increased revenue from seniors.

The proposal also included a component to examine the possibility of a special fare for park and ride users and increasing the airport bus fare to $6 from $3.50.

There is also a provision to consult with the Halifax Regional Centre for Education and Conseil Scolaire Acadien Provincial on a student transit pass pilot project.

“The timing of that is really good because of the plan to get rid of Stock Transportation with HRCE within a year,” Mason said. “So finding a way to make Halifax Transit more accessible, especially to high school-aged kids could be a really useful tool for HRCE next year.”

No member of the public presented any opinions during the meeting but Robert Young, who described himself as a low-income Halifax senior and transit user, spoke to media afterward.

“I was just shocked by that meeting that there was no study of how many seniors take the bus versus children, which I would probably argue that a lot more seniors are very dependent on the bus, especially in the wintertime,” he said.

“I like the idea that they’re giving it a bit of time to see what the effect will be on seniors, but I would suspect a big push-back from seniors on this issue.”

In a news release, Nova Scotia PC party seniors critic Barbara Adams, slammed the proposed seniors fare increase.

“This proposal is simply outrageous and is going to have a massive impact on HRM seniors,” Adams said in the release. “We have a growing population of seniors who are on a fixed income. Our focus should be on keeping costs low, not adding to an already growing cost of living.”