Lack of public transit limits access to education, work for youth in Montreal's east end, report finds
CBC
Youth in Montreal's east end are more susceptible to social isolation, financial precarity and issues accessing higher education because of a lack of public transit services in the area, a recent report suggests.
The report, entitled Oubliés au terminus, was tabled by the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles youth council earlier this month.
It highlights the realities of youth in the borough who regularly find themselves having to sit in a bus and metro for more than an hour to arrive anywhere near the downtown area.
"The fact that a car ride between Rivière-des-Prairies and the [Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières] is, in some cases, faster than travelling by public transit to the Université de Montréal illustrates the gravity of the situation," the report says.
The university in Trois-Rivères is around 130 kilometres away, while the Université de Montréal is about 25 kilometres away from Rivière-des-Prairies.
Darlène Jean Jacques, co-president of the youth council, knows this reality all too well.
Studying full-time at Concordia University, while doing volunteer work and working in a bank, she felt she had no choice but to buy a car so as not to spend hours getting to and from her home and her daily obligations.
“It limits access for youth to have a proper social life because for us in the borough, for us to be able to access concerts, activities... you have to take at least an hour of bus just to get to a metro," she added.
While there are some express buses in the area, they aren't accessible outside of weekdays and rush hours.
“The east end is kind of a forgotten place on the Island of Montreal," said Jacques. "We have a flagrant disparity when it comes to transport compared to the west end."
According to the report, lack of access to sufficient public transportation accentuates an already-existing disparity when it comes to education access.
The report says youth in the east end already face higher drop-out rates and a lower percentage of the population has a bachelor's degree compared to other parts of the city.
It also limits their access to work opportunities and can make it difficult to escape poverty, the report says.
The youth council fears this situation will only be made worse as already-existing public transit services continue to see issues of funding and risk being cut in some places.
Two Ontario residents are urging the province to review and improve what they say is a "broken" system that's supposed to limit air pollution from big industries.
Politicians, prospectors and mining executives from across northern Ontario are in Toronto this week for the world's largest mining conference.
The City of Toronto is making drivers aware of an intersection closure in downtown Toronto beginning Monday.
A period of bitterly cold wind chills is expected overnight into Monday morning across Waterloo Region and Guelph.
Canada's seemingly breakneck effort to replace its aging submarine fleet hits an important milestone on Monday with the deadline for both the South Korean and German shipyards to submit their formal proposals in the more than $20-billion program.
Cheers rang through Springbank Park in London, Ont., on Sunday afternoon as dozens of local Iranians danced, chanted and waved flags to mark the death of Iran’s supreme leader, who was killed in a major strike.
Shayan Morshedi stayed awake, waiting for news from home, as the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Saturday.
It’s been 31 years since Ziba Mashkori left her home country of Iran, and for the first time in a while, she says, she's hopeful about the future of the country.
Conservationists are reporting that more alewife and blueback herring are returning to the St. Croix River after the removal of a hydroelectric dam two years ago.
Youth in Montreal's east end are more susceptible to social isolation, financial precarity and issues accessing higher education because of a lack of public transit services in the area, a recent report suggests.
Some Iranians living in Winnipeg continued celebrating throughout the weekend after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint attack launched by the U.S. and Israel.
The Regina Fire department and police say they found a man dead inside a Regina home while responding to an early morning house fire.
A snowmobiler has died in B.C.’s Interior after an avalanche in the Kootenay Pass area on Saturday, RCMP says, as forecasters warn hazardous conditions persist across the province.