Mayor promises more safety officers as bus union rallies at city hall By: Erik Pindera Posted: 1:04 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 Last Modified: 5:41 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 Updates

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Mayor Scott Gillingham is calling for more safety officers on city transit as the union for bus drivers said Tuesday safety issues must be addressed “now.”

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 held a rally Tuesday morning outside city hall to push for improved safety measures on Winnipeg Transit.

Gillingham later said he plans to find resources to strengthen the program, but provided few details of what an expansion would look like, citing the preliminary city budget that’s slated to come out in early December.

“The community safety officer initiative has been well received. I’ve been hearing from transit operators and members of the public who appreciate their presence of the community safety officer team,” said Gillingham in the afternoon.

“One of the keys of an effective transit system is public confidence that the system is safe.”

The mayor would not reveal how many additional officers he would like to see hired, saying any new details would come out in the budget.

He did say he would like the program to expand beyond the downtown, with officers on buses coming and going from suburbs and other areas.

The safety team, currently made up of about 20 sworn peace officers, patrol on and around downtown Transit buses and bus stops. The team began patrols in February, after it was created following a campaign promise from Gillingham.

The province provided one-time $5-M grant in late 2023, expected to last to 2027. The mayor’s office said costs are expected to reach $3 million by 2027.

The mayor said if the city needs to go it alone in funding the program, he’s willing to look at that option, though he added he’s always looking to discuss new funding models with the province.

The mayor’s office said community safety officers have responded to 2,200 incidents since February.

At the rally, attended by various labour groups and led by the ATU, union president Chris Scott appealed for improved safety shields for bus drivers, a new safety incident reporting system similar to a smartphone application used by Toronto’s transit services and for additional personnel to be hired to address safety for drivers and riders, among other demands.

Scott said safety issues aboard transit need to be taken care of “now.”

In regard to new hires, Scott said that could be increasing the number of people on transit safety team, or other personnel, such as transit inspectors.

Scott said reported security incidents against drivers — which includes everything from physical assaults to verbal abuse — are down slightly this year compared to last, which he said he hopes is attributable to the new safety team.

At the end of November 2023, there had been 238 such incidents reported to the union, while so far this year, there have been 201. The year-end total in 2023, 257, was a massive increase over 130 incidents in 2022, 88 in 2021 and 86 in 2020.

“A lot of my members are wondering, where are they? They have a wide range of responsibilities, both on and off the bus … they want anything that will help make transit safer,” said Scott.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s community safety team, transit police, or the military, if you only have 20 on 500-plus buses, they’re going to be ineffective, we need more supports.”

Scott added that mental health and addictions appear to be the root cause of many incidents on buses — imploring governments to try to address the underlying issues.

“If you don’t have the housing security, the food security, the mental-health supports, the addictions resources, people are going to lash out, they’re going to have nowhere to go,” said Scott.

City buses have been equipped with a shield that partially encompasses the driver seat since 2019. Scott said would-be attackers have adapted to those shields by reaching around them.

The city’s Transit advisory committee is awaiting a cost estimate for full shields before moving forward. Transit spokesman Brandon Logan said Monday there’s no timeline for when that estimate may be completed.

Scott called that lack of a timeline frustrating.

He said a manufacturer the union’s been in contact with offered to design a shield at no cost for a six-month pilot project, but Scott said “the wheels of government move at a snail’s pace.”

The union leader said fare evasion tends to precipitate other incidents on buses, like assaults or threats. He’d like to see an awareness campaign and then ramped up fare enforcement.

Logan said Tuesday the transit agency always welcomes discussion on safety ideas at the advisory committee’s meetings.

“Winnipeg Transit is always open to exploring all options when it comes to the safety of passengers and our bus operators,” said Logan, adding the city has spent on a number of new safety initiatives since 2017.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca