THUNDER BAY – Transit riders will not see changes to bus service levels this summer.
In a 7-4 vote city council has rejected the transit’s proposed summer schedule adjustments.
Couns. Rajni Agarwal, Mark Bentz, Shelby Ch’ng, Andrew Foulds, Greg Johnsen, Dominic Pasqualino, and Michael Zussino voted against the changes, while Couns. Albert Aiello, Kasey Etreni, Brian Hamilton, and Mayor Ken Boshcoff voted in favour.
Couns. Kristen Oliver and Trevor Giertuga were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
“I still am not convinced that these summer cuts are going to address any of the underlying issues with absenteeism. In my viewpoint, I always bring it back to what our job is according to the municipal act. We pass policy, we passed the budget, and we represent people,” Ch’ng said.
“I’m of the opinion that the buses belong to the people and not management or the unions. The riders who depend on them are becoming collateral damage. People are missing appointments. Not going to work, missing exams. I’m also of the mindset that we need to find another way.”
Matthew Furioso, supervisor of operations for transit, told council that if transit service remains at its current service delivery level, they are projecting a 92 per cent service delivery rate this summer — or two out of every 25 routes cancelled — which would mean five eight-hour shifts missed each day.
Transit services are projecting that about 52 operators will be unavailable due to leave of absence, sick leave or vacation, Furioso said.
The city needs approximately 84 operators for summer services, but has 79 operators available, said Furioso.
If the reduction was approved by council, transit would only need 77 available operators, which would give them a service delivery rate of 99 per cent, he said.
Furioso said that any operators coming back from leave can be put back into rotation as a conventional bus driver or operate additional Lift Plus service daily.
“Earlier this year, we passed a budget and, although the rate was up more than what we planned, one of the things that we held firm was that it was gonna be a no-cut budget. So, if city council was to stick with a no-cut budget, and no cut in the ridership, I mean in the roots. What options does the management and union have to resolve this issue?” Pasqualino said.
City manager John Collin said a referral to increase transit’s budget to hire more drivers would still run into challenges because there is a 15-week training period upon hiring.
“That will be after the, or certainly well into, the summer period. This is the only viable recommendation that we believe can achieve the reliability levels that we need through the summer months,” he said.
Without the service adjustment, the city could not guarantee the reliability of the service, according to Collin.
“The ridership speaker has spoken. No more cancellations, full stop,” Hamilton said.
He asked administration to outline the task of going back to find an alternative solution to service reductions.
Furioso said the service has explored many options with the union, but ultimately, “everything (they) landed on either is either voluntary or some of the service adjustments that were brought forward are already in our plan.”
Putting half the buses on a 45-minute wait time and the other half on 30 minutes does not work with interlining buses, he said.
“It would lead to significant increases in wait times for individuals trying to connect with other buses if they’re not all on the same schedule. We’ve thoroughly explored all of our options,” Furioso said.
“While things like the vacation deferrals and the overtime are our best options at reducing it, because of the voluntary nature, I’m not confident that that would solve our problem on a weekly basis or even a daily basis.”
Hamilton said he doesn’t see administration’s proposal as a service reduction but as a service enhancement.
“The reduction is the status quo, where people don’t have a reliable service to count on and rely on to get to work, to exams, to visit family. We don’t have a service right now. This provides a little bit of hope. And this actually is an update and a service enhancement to this current status quo,” he said.
