The universal pass or "U-Pass" will cost all full-time Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo students $81 per term after an increase kicks in Sept. 1. The pass allows unlimited use of Grand River Transit buses. Conestoga students individually pay $218 per term for the same service.

Students attending private colleges in the region pay $257 per term.

A report received by the region's planning and works committee Tuesday said staff will work with student leaders and administrators from Conestoga, "to develop a draft 2016 budget issue paper" which would reveal how much extending the U-Pass to Conestoga's 11,000 full-time students would cost.

Regional planning and works committee chair Tom Galloway said "budgets aren't any easier" to balance than they were in 2011 when council last considered offering Conestoga students the U-Pass. But he suggested the region offer Conestoga students the universal pass, and increase service to meet demand over the years.

"We may need to start off with a path that may not have a full level of service, and the fee would have to reflect that," Galloway said. "And then we could build up the service over a period of time."

Conestoga Students Inc. president Jeff Scherer said any agreement with the region for a universal bus pass should include a commitment for increased bus service in the future.

"If service can't be increased now, what can we be guaranteed or at least talk about once the light rail transit system is put in place?" he said. "I don't want to get (the U-Pass) with no expanded bus service, but my ears are definitely open to what kind of suggestions they have."

In 2011, regional staff calculated that extending the U-Pass to Conestoga students would require the purchase of 10 new GRT buses and 18,000 additional service hours.

The last referendum conducted at Conestoga in 2011 indicated most students supported a universal bus pass. But regional council balked at the costs associated with extending the U-Pass to Conestoga students.

Scherer, who was recently re-elected as president, said he won't hold another referendum on the issue until the region appears more willing to approve the U-Pass extension, as many students expressed feeling let down when the region did not approve the pass after the 2011 referendum.

Last December, Cambridge city council passed a resolution asking the region to reconsider offering Conestoga students the U-Pass, as a matter of fairness. Conestoga opened a 260,000-square-foot campus in Cambridge, south of Highway 401 opposite the Doon campus, in 2011. It houses the college's engineering, trades, information technology and food processing programs

At a rapid bus "iExpress" stop at the Doon campus Thursday, one student after another said the fact that they pay $137 more per term for bus service than university students in the region is extremely unfair.

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"We should be paying the same as other students in the area are paying," information technology student Chijioke Okoye said.

Chantelle Kemp, who is completing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, said extending the U-Pass to Conestoga students "would really help me not owe (the Ontario Student Assistance Program) so much money."