Almost 1,600 transit workers from St. Albert and Edmonton have signed a petition opposing the move to a regional transit system, vocalizing concerns about what the amalgamation will mean for workers and riders.
Dozens of transit workers and union representatives gathered outside Edmonton City Hall in protest of the Regional Transit Service Commission (RTSC) on Friday. Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 569 president Steve Bradshaw said 70 per cent of affected union employees see efforts to regionalize transit services as a “threat to service and to safety.”
He said the union is concerned regionalizing transit could mean job losses, increased cost to municipalities and reductions in service. Finding efficiencies by reducing service hours will put some workers out of a job, he said, and the union is concerned the commission’s intent is to contract out bus services to private companies.
“Privatized transit is bad for our riders, it’s bad for our communities, and it's bad for taxpayers. It's also bad for workers, as private operators seek to strip away wages and benefits to thicken up their bottom line,” Bradshaw said.
He said the union wants a seat at the RTSC governing board to make sure their voices are heard, and assurances from the commission that transit services will remain public.
“Our petition shows we are united and angry about the current regionalization plan. It is an attack on the public transit services that will create an ongoing liability for the municipal partners and their taxpayers.”
On Jan. 28, the province approved the formation of a new regional services commission for the Edmonton Metropolitan Region as a way to streamline transit services, save money and improve connectivity within the region. Eight communities signed on, including Beaumont, Devon, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, St. Albert, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain.
The board is currently in the final stages of finding a chief executive officer (CEO) to lead the RTSC and work to bring those individual municipal transit services together. The RTSC is planning to establish a common transit network for the capital region by 2022.
Darlene Malayko, the elected representative for St. Albert drivers from ATU Local 569, said regionalization will bring "another layer of bureaucracy" to local transit systems. For example, if riders have an issue, they would now have to go through St. Albert Transit, a city councillor and then to the commission for the concern to be heard.
Local bus drivers are also worried about job security with the commission as their employer, she said. Right now, St. Albert bus drivers are hired by a company under contract by the City of St. Albert.
"Of course they're worried about their jobs and job security," she said. "There's no guarantees, right? We don't know what's going to happen when the contractors come in. Drivers aren't going to want to work for $15 an hour."
She said she questioned whether regional routes would see enough ridership to be sustainable, and how much St. Albert taxpayers could be left on the hook for with regional transit routes. Instead, Malayko said money should have been spent to bolster and improve existing services.
"The philosophy of transit is service. It's not about saving money on bus tire tread, or engine hours. It's about providing a good service – if we provide a good service, people will take the bus."
With COVID-19 throwing transit systems into disarray, Morinville backed out of joining the RTSC, alongside the counties of Leduc, Sturgeon, Strathcona and Parkland. Last May, Sturgeon County decided to be an advisory member only. Last June, Morinville's chief administrative officer said he couldn't recommend the town join the commission at a cost of $180,000 a year without doing a pilot first to gauge interest.
Commission responds
RTSC interim chair Wes Brodhead, who is also a St. Albert city councillor, said he understands the viewpoint of union workers. However, the intent of the commission is not to change business models, but to provide public transit in a "more seamless, more effective way."
"The commission will always be public transit operators," Brodhead said. "We honour them for the work that they do, and we're not about to disadvantage them in any way ... The business case was built on what currently exists."
A regional approach to transit would allow for better co-ordination of approximately 6,800 weekly hours of service delivered across the region through eliminating duplications in the current system, according to the RTSC business case. For example, instead of having a bus from St. Albert and a bus from Edmonton travelling similar routes, only one bus would be needed.
Savings from reducing service hours would offset increased costs to operate the RTSC, with the commission originally forecasting savings of $3.4 million per year after five years of operation if all 13 municipalities had signed on, according to the business case.
Cutting back service hours will have impacts on employees, but there's time to minimize those impacts, Brodhead said. Routes could open up to service newer parts of the region or the employee base could be managed through retirements rather than cutting people out of a job, he said.
"That's not our intention at all."
As for representation, Brodhead said members of the governing board are elected officials placed there to represent their municipalities.
"Citizens might have something to say about a labour union having access to taxation rights within the region."
However, union workers could take other avenues to make their voices heard, including attending public board meetings or talking with labour management consultation boards, he said.
Since the petition was delivered, Brodhead said the RTSC has reached out to Bradshaw to set up a meeting.
"It's always hard for people to look into the future and see the benefit – it's much easier to be fearful of the risks," he said. "The business case doesn't speak about a sort of scheme to change the system delivery model to the detriment of anybody. The idea is that people and the region will be the beneficiaries of this."
