The Government of Canada has proclaimed this week, June 3 to 9, as Environment Week and tomorrow, June 6 as Clean Air Day.

To support the government’s efforts, some Greater Toronto Area transit agencies are offering incentives to reward regular transit riders or encourage new passengers to use transit regularly.

Burlington Transit and Guelph Transit offer passengers free rides anywhere in their systems all day tomorrow, June 6.

You can get a free ride on Milton Transit tomorrow and every weekday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Town of Milton is the only municipality in Canada to offer free transit service for an extended period of time.

York Region Transit has two incentives to encourage passengers to go green by riding blue — riding transit just once during Environment Week. Passengers can register their “blue is green” ride on line for a chance to win an I-Pod or a free July YRT / Viva pass. Also, if a YRT spot-checker finds a passenger wearing an “I’m green. I ride. YRT / Viva” button, the passenger could win an instant prize. YRT staff have handed out the buttons at various YRT locations since May 30.

Many municipalities are encouraging residents to participate in the Commuter Challenge this week. Last year, more than 38,000 Canadians took part in the Challenge by walking, cycling, taking transit, carpooling or teleworking instead of driving alone to get to work. This reduced eCO2 emissions by 887,115.80 kg — the equivalent of not driving 704 passenger vehicles a year. By registering their participation this week on line, Canadians can see how much they have contributed to commuting sustainably and the how much greenhouse gases they prevented from entering the atmosphere.