THUNDER BAY — A pair of protest votes at Monday’s city council meeting showed some city councillors want more assurances the city is working to address safety and abuse concerns from Thunder Bay Transit workers.
A report released last week showed bus drivers reported well over 1,000 safety incidents since the start of 2022.
The data captures acts of aggression, dozens of assaults, exposure to bodily fluid, and instances of intoxication that prompted safety concerns, including someone becoming unresponsive.
An action plan accompanying the report set out a number of strategies planned or underway to address the concerns.
Coun. Andrew Foulds questioned the lack of a plan to report back on the data and those actions in future years.
"Clearly a lot of work has been done here, and there's a roadmap for a lot more work," he said. "There’s a lot of good stuff here that needs to be done, and I need some confidence that we’re going to be moving forward with that."
Staff acknowledged there was no plan to report back, though the data will continue to be tracked.
City manager Norm Gale suggested the issue would not normally warrant a report to council, calling transit just one of a number of city departments facing safety and abuse concerns.
“While the situations in transit are severe — and they are — situations in other areas of the corporation are severe, as well,” he said. “We’re not here talking about health care professionals at Pioneer Ridge who are routinely assaulted, nor paramedics who are spit on and kicked.”
Council normally receives a high-level update on health and safety across city operations semi-annually, though Gale confirmed it would not provide detail on transit incidents.
“I respect Coun. Foulds seeking accountability in this regard, and I think council is accountable,” he said. “If you consider the role of council versus the role of management or administration, council functions at the strategic and policy level, where we go in and do details.”
Foulds and Coun. Kasey Etreni each voted symbolically against taking transit safety off council’s “outstanding list” Monday.
Without any requirement to follow up with council, Foulds worried the issue could “get lost.”
The councillors, outvoted by their colleagues, expressed their intention to return with a motion setting a report-back date, after discussing with staff.
“We’ve started to accumulate some really interesting data, we’ve got some really interesting solutions,” Foulds said in an interview. “What I really wanted to see is, what’s next? And making sure council is apprised of some of those challenges, seeing some of the data going forward, and making sure all the parties are accountable.”
“I want to hear the actual end results and I want to be able to see those incidents reducing,” agreed Etreni.
“It’s not just about the numbers, it's about the employees that we have working. As you heard, getting those employees to work in this area hasn't been very successful. So we need to prove to the employees that exist that we care about their health — we care what they're dealing with every day.”
Transit manager Brad Loroff had expressed openness to reporting back, but told council that might take time to do meaningfully.
“I think it would be beneficial for us to be able to have some time to see some of these action items come to fruition and then following that, have time to measure whether or not there’s a level of success and what that level is – and then report back to council.”
The transit safety report responded to a call for action from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 966, which represents drivers and mechanics and had complained of slow progress on the file.
Last week, the union expressed optimism the city appeared to be making progress on some items, and had at least set timelines on others.
“We're just going to keep on them and make sure they adhere to the timelines in the report, and if we have to go back to city council, that's what we'll do,” said union president Fred Caputo at the time.
Items on the action plan include delivering de-escalation training to all drivers by early 2024, an expansion to Transit’s dispatch centre and on-street support in 2024, exploring a peer support program, and adding protective barriers in 2025 — a step the ATU has long called for.
The city will also issue a call for expressions of interest to social and health services to pilot partnerships to supplement security at city hall, an approach tried in larger cities.
Foulds called that an example of the kinds of creative solutions the city should be pursuing in the face of safety concerns.
“It’s pretty clear that many of the individuals are struggling from mental health and intoxication,” he said. “We tend to use police to solve all of those problems, or paramedics and firefighters.”
“Obviously there are crises where 911 needs to be called, there’s no question about that. But I think there are some other situations that are urgent, where perhaps we’re not getting the right services to the right person.”
“Maybe this is an intersection point, on the bus, at a transit hub, where we can do some really important social work… Maybe we can be a leader, because we clearly have some challenges, [and] I don’t think the police or paramedics are the answer every time.”
