POLICY PROPOSAL (draft)

TITLE

 - TransLink Wellness-Hub

ABSTRACT

 - Request COPE endorse and support the establishment of a TransLink Wellness-Hub

JUSTIFICATION

 - We need to get more people out of their cars and onto public transit. Supporting increased use of public transit as an alternative to car use will benefit everyone through reduced road congestion and reduced pollution.

 - As the proportion of city residents using public transit increases, so will their appreciation of the service increase, as well as their willingness to provide funding for it, through taxes and other means.

 - We need public transit to be affordable, ideally free for users, and to encourage people to engage in a healthy lifestyle that will enable them to be as healthy and happy as possible.

PROPOSAL

 - As an incentive to encourage people to use public transit, the TransLink Wellness-Hub would be an organization owned by TransLink which would reward public transit users who maintain and improve their health (through Wellness-Programs and other means).

 - Rewards - to be determined by survey based on what transit users want.

 - Improvements in peoples' health would in turn reduce healthcare costs, and those cost savings could then be used to help fund public transit, enhance social & environmental programs and reduce government debt.

 - Healthy, happy people would also be less likely to engage in crime as they would be able to solve their problems without resorting to crime. A TransLink Wellness-Hub would therefore help reduce crimecare costs as well, and in doing so, help create a value worth even more than money.