The city will be taking over HAGI Community Services for Independence.
Council voted 11-one in favour of bringing the specialty transit service under the control of the city at Monday night’s meeting. Only coun. Iain Angus voted against the recommendation. The approved recommendation also included $1.5 million for improvements to Transit Operations and Maintenance facility to accommodate the new specialized transit and that vehicles and staff be incorporated to the facility on Fort William Road by Jan. 1, 2014.
Executive Director for HAGI Services Cal Rankin said it was a done deal even before the council meeting started.
“Our task will be to hold council’s foot to the fire to ensure what they said tonight becomes a reality,” Rankin said. “We have some great concerns that our consumers are at risk. There was some good will in the room. Everyone wants to serve the disable community the best they can.”
Rankin disagreed with administration that the city could save on maintenance, gas and insurance if HAGI went in-house. Rankin believed the projected $250,000 savings proposed by administration is much lower.
He said they have been struggling the meet the increasing demand for years and in order to provide the best possible service the city will need to spend more money. Council heard that the demand has been increasing about 500 more riders per year.
Rankin guessed that they would have needed maybe $500,000 to meet that demand.
The issue of job losses came up prior to the decision but when asked the question, administration wasn’t able to provide an answer.
Rankin said he assumed there would be jobs cut as a result of the amalgamation.
“Perhaps drivers could lose their jobs or perhaps the management team,” he said. “As they devolve the services, there will certainly be administrative jobs lost at HAGI. It certainly could affect my own job. Either I have more workload or I have less pay. It will affect the whole organization.”
Council also debate the issue at length during the meeting but all agreed that they wanted to ensure the community had the best service possible and moving forward administration would work with officials with HAGI.
Angus told council that HAGI felt that they hadn’t had enough input in the lead up in the decision even though they had an advance copy of the report.
“The report is administration saying it is a done deal and we have to decide if we accept it or not,” he said. “I think we could have done better by sitting down with HAGI on a much more detailed basis and help to understand how it really works. I think we can build a better system. If at the end of the day it is a system run by the city of Thunder Bay, so be it. But I don’t want to dismiss 35 years of investment in this community.”
Eligibility for the service was also an issue. Currently, the more than 8,600 registered clients have to have a doctor’s note before being allowed access to the service. Council discussed a number of ways to change the eligibility from a more comprehensive written application to a physical test.
Thunder Bay Transit Manager Brad Loroff said next year they will be taking time to review who will be eligible for the service.
“It’s just to assure that we align the processes here in Thunder Bay in what we see out there and what is being utilized in other municipalities,” he said. “The whole objective is just to ensure that whoever truly need the service and relies on the service gets the service.”
Loroff also put to rest some misconceptions that some residents had with the report. He added that when HAGI comes under the city former clients of the specialty service won’t be taken off the list and made to ride public buses.
