Safety shields just one of several transit priorities: Bowman

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This article was published 14/01/2019 (2175 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman won’t commit to a proposal to expedite the purchase and installation of driver safety shields on all Winnipeg Transit buses.

Bowman told reporters Tuesday he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote on last week’s motion from the public works committee that supports a plan to use part of Transit’s unexpected $12.8-million 2018 surplus to pay for protection devices on the 630-vehicle fleet within 18 months.

The mayor said while he supports spending the money on transit-related issues, there are other priorities, including his own campaign commitment to introduce a low-income bus fare.

“There’s a number of competing demands within the transit budget,” Bowman said.

“Transit safety is a priority, but so is ridership and service levels — and a low-income bus pass is part of that and it was a commitment I made to Winnipeggers in the most recent election (2018).”

Councillors on the public works committee voted 3-1 for the expedited plan, overruling a recommendation from Transit management to phase in shield purchase and installation over a three-year period.

Transit director Greg Ewankiw said the work could be done within 18 months, and his only justification for the phased-in approach is that was the typical length of time taken by similar transit authorities across the country to install such shields.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, who initiated the motion at public works, said he was embarrassed it’s taken the city almost two years following the Feb. 14, 2017, on-the-job slaying of transit driver Irvine Jubal Fraser to conclude shields should be installed on all buses.

Public works committee chairman Coun. Matt Allard — a member of Bowman’s executive policy committee — cast the opposing vote, saying he wanted to have the issue debated as part of the 2019 budget process.

Pushing the question to the budget debate could mean a further delay of at least two more months; Bowman announced Tuesday the budget won’t be tabled and passed until March.

“As an employer, we have an obligation to provide reasonable safety measures for our employees,” Browaty (North Kildonan) said. “Supplying shields is, at least in part, helpful to improving driver morale.”

Browaty said the low-income bus pass initiative will require long-term funding which can’t be financed with one-time money from the 2018 surplus. The shields, he said, is the appropriate project for those funds.

The proposal from the public works committee will go to council at its Jan. 31 meeting, but first, the plan will be vetted by Bowman and EPC on Jan. 22.

Bowman said he’ll study the motion and consult with “some” councillors, but his answer suggested he wants to delay the issue until the budget debate.

“These are things we’ll be looking at as we finalize our budget, and we’ll go from there,” he said. “Council will ultimately have their say.”

Aleem Chaudhary, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, which represents most Transit employees, said he doesn’t think there’s any justification for further delay.

“The shields should have been installed on the buses last year, but as long as they do it within 18 months, that’s our position,” he said.

While the ATU and city hall have started bargaining on a new collective agreement (the previous four-year contract expired Jan. 12), Chaudhary said he didn’t think the mayor was using shields as a bargaining chip.

“We’re just hoping they’ll come together and realize the problems our operators are facing each and every day on the road… We’re hoping the mayor and council will support that,” he said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca