Committee calls for answers on Transit Plus

A motion passed by the city's infrastructure and public works committee on Monday is calling for answers on how Winnipeg's Transit Plus delivers service.

St. Boniface councillor Matt Allard drafted the questions on behalf of colleagues on city council after several received inquiries from residents about the complaint process and operations of Transit Plus.

The motion was also prompted by a report by the Manitoba Ombudsman from January 2019 which made 19 recommendations to improve service, identifying customer service and the complaint process as areas requiring improvement.

Those improvements are in varying stages of implementation.

Transit Plus was under scrutiny earlier this year after complaints about its reservation system.

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The committee's motion, if passed by the executive policy committee and city council, will put a number of questions in front of administrators in charge of the Transit Plus program.

Those include the number of complaints made and the number of fines imposed on each Winnipeg Transit Plus contractor, as well as the number of reservations that were missed and the number of requests for service that weren't accommodated.

Specific complaints against individual contractors with Transit Plus were not made during the committee's discussions.

Administrators for Transit Plus warned councillors it would take a substantial amount of time to coordinate the data to provide responses to the questions.

Councillor calls for 'more transparency'

Advocates for residents with disabilities told the committee the data collection was crucial to helping understand where service delivery is falling short with the Transit Plus program.

Patrick Stewart with the Independent Living Resource Centre (ILRC) said it would "help us to begin to put together the picture for the members of our community who use this service."

One of questions Stewart passed along was how many inspectors were required to inspect the safety and compliance of Transit Plus contractors who provide the service.

ILRC staff met with Transit Plus administrators in the summer and were told there was currently only one inspector, despite the service providing over 400,000 trips last year.

"That's an enormous number. If there is only one person on the road ensuring contractors are complying all their obligations —safety and otherwise — that seems quite farfetched," Stewart told the committee.

The ILRC also wants background on cancellations, the number of round trips that were requested where only a portion of the trip was completed, and the accuracy of trip scheduling.

Stewart also asked to have information that identified the cost of providing Transit Plus services for those needing dialysis treatment, with an eye to recovering those health care costs from the province of Manitoba.

Debbie Van Ettinger told the committee the data was crucial to sort out what services were required by disabled residents.

"If we were able to get those numbers then we might be able to fund the system with the needs we have," said Van Ettinger.

The executive director of 1010 Sinclair Housing says there is so little information available publicly it not only hampers what services are provided, but making decisions on how to improve them.

"Winnipeg Transit Plus does need to provide more transparency. It is very difficult for city councillors to make decisions on funding or the program or the systems if they don't have accurate information," Van Ettinger said.

By this fall Transit Plus had met five of the 19 recommendations made by the Ombudsman, including requiring all drivers to wear high-visibility vests and updating driver manuals with the city's policy on sexual harassment.

Transit staff say the program will address several of the remaining recommendations later this winter when it publishes a comprehensive Transit Plus user guide.

It could take several months to answer the questions set out by the committee if the motion passes at executive policy committee and city council.