Kingston seniors won’t be losing their municipal transit, recreation and other municipal discounts anytime soon.

Councillors shelved a contentious plan to eliminate age-based discounts in favour of bringing in reduced municipal fees that are based on a person’s income.

Coun. Ryan Boehme, who moved the deferral motion last month, says he’d like more information on how many seniors currently use the discounts, how many would not qualify based on the shift to income-based discounts, plus additional public outreach.

The staff recommendation to eliminate most of the over-65 perks was deferred by a vote of 11-1 until there is further review of the impacts. The matter is expected to return to the horseshoe in the spring of 2019, when a new council will be in place.

Community services commissioner Lanie Hurdle says the one year review will allow staff to run more models to better gauge the impact on seniors, and to take those results to the public for more consultation.

“Definitely we heard that people want more involvement and the ability to have conversation around this.”

The initial recommendation was to scrap financial discounts given to those over the age of 65 for “all city programs except transit” starting in January 2020. The city planned to shift those subsidies to needier residents in all age groups.

In addition, the income threshold in the ‘My Kingston municipal fee assistance program’ would increase to allow more people – up to 20,000 residents – to qualify for income-based municipal discounts.

The proposed policy shift away from age-based discounts stems from increasing evidence showing that the seniors population is better off financially than 40 or 50 years ago, while more struggling young people could benefit from additional subsidies.

City officials said the aim of the policy is not to pick on seniors but to provide more discounts to a broader range of the population.

People over 65 enjoy discounts for municipal services, including Kingston Transit

However, many seniors slammed the policy shift as unfair treatment after years of paying taxes, adding the city shouldn’t be taking away discounts from one group to pay for another.

One in five Kingston residents is over 65, according to recent Census data.