Councillor pushes for ‘equitable’ bus access for North End, West End, downtown

A city councillor is calling on council to research restoring Transit stops in some of Winnipeg’s most impacted neighbourhoods.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) told the executive policy committee she wants to see a report presented to council within 30 days with options and in-year budget requirements to “restore and improve access to transit” in the North End, West End and downtown.

“We have evidence that equitable access is not there for the North End and West End and downtown, and that needs a response because it runs contrary to council policy,” Rollins said after the meeting Tuesday.

Rollins cited reporting in the Free Press and the Narwhal published earlier this month that found some communities in Winnipeg with higher concentrations of low-income and bus-dependent populations lost an above-average number of bus stops in June’s Transit overhaul.

“There’s been waves of waves of really concerning, both anecdotal data and crunching the available data, that has been disclosed from frankly, the communications department, not transit,” Rollins said. “The feedback really reflects some challenges that we need to address right now.”

She presented a motion during EPC that also called for an update on Transit’s plans to address the impact of the changes on the city’s poverty reduction strategy. It also called on city staff to “immediately cease communications that dismiss neighbourhood concerns … and instead provide transparent, evidence-based reporting that acknowledges and addresses resident impacts.”

On the last point, Rollins referred to a post on the City of Winnipeg’s website published Friday listing “myths” staff have heard about the Transit overhaul.

Her motion was not included in EPC’s meeting agenda Tuesday and no action was taken. She said she plans to push the issue further.

“I will continue to reach out to families, schools and workplaces, not just in my ward, but those that I think the evidence points to the (overhaul’s) impact disrupting their safety,” she said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said Transit is already in the process of analyzing the gaps in service that need to be filled, including returning late-night service to some routes.

“They’re doing their work. We’re going to call on them, we are calling them to make more and more changes,” he said.

Councilors will be meeting with Transit staff Wednesday, public works committee chair Coun. Janice Lukes said, where some of Rollins’ concerns could be addressed. Further conversations would happen at the next public works committee meeting in November.

“They will not have an answer in 30 days, but they put the lens of the poverty reduction strategy on everything,” Lukes (Waverley West) said.

“We can’t put back every bus stop because then there’s no frequent service, that changes the whole schedule, but transit is looking at where they can put back bus stops, and we’ll hear about that.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca