Mayor John Tory’s picture perfect photo-op was derailed on Monday by a resident miffed at the rising cost of Metropasses.

Ann Wallace pressed Tory about Metropass price hikes during the mayor’s press conference outside a Toronto Community Housing building on Roywood Dr.

“I would like to find out, how can single parents pay $142 a month for a Metropass on a minimum wage of maybe $11 an hour? How are we supposed to survive? You let me know that,” Wallace said to Tory. “Every year the Metropass has been going up. I stand proof of that because I buy the Metropass every month — $142 for poor people. How are we supposed to manage?”

The 2015 budget included a TTC fare hike that bumped the price of a Metropass from $133.75 to $141.50.

Tory — who broke his election promise to freeze fares this year — noted the 2015 budget also rolled out free transit for kids 12 and under.

“I think the purpose of that was to be aimed at exactly some of the same families that you’re talking about, which was to make that free transit available to those children so that those families would have their overall bill lowered,” Tory explained.

Before moving on to answering more questions from reporters, the mayor agreed to talk to Wallace privately after the press conference.

Wallace said the free transit for kids doesn’t help her because she doesn’t have children in that age group.

“When I came to this country, the Metropass was like, I think, $23 ... and the service was a lot better,” she said in an interview. “Now, when you think about it, I am paying $142 a month for a Metropass alone.”

don.peat@sunmedia.ca