Windsor council nixes transit shuffle proposal in budget talks

A proposal spearheaded by two councillors to shuffle transit service was defeated by council on Monday. 

Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie and Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante last week proposed a new transit package that they said would improve transit city-wide by redirecting extra high school transit buses across the rest of the city.  

The proposal was presented as an amendment to Windsor's 2024 budget on Monday, but was not supported by fellow councillors who said they were concerned about eliminating the specific high school schools service buses. 

"We came forward with an idea, Councillor Costante and myself, and I think it was a good idea," McKenzie said. "Council opted to not proceed. 

"But what I do know what will happen as a result is our transit system is failing. It will continue to fail. We've taken no steps here today to improve that service across the board."

The proposal would follow what's outline in the Transit Windsor master plan by eliminating extra buses operated by the bus service used by high school students. These buses, in some cases, travel along regularly scheduled bus routes.

The proposal would use those buses to increase service in south Windsor by altering the Walkerville 8, Dougall 6, South Windsor 7, Parent 14 and adding Route 305 which would service the Ducharme area after re-routing the Walkerville 8. 

The idea was a scaled-down version of the enhanced bus service plan the city's transportation committee approved last year and would have cost about $330,000 through the city's operating budget with one-time funding from a reserve fund. 

"So it would not have impacted property taxes whatsoever," Costante said. "I thought it was a sensible plan, it was a phased approach of proposing and unfortunately council voted against it. 

"I'm always going to fight for more transit services, absolutely."

During discussion, councillors said they were concerned about eliminating those school buses, especially for students at Holy Names Catholic High School and Vincent Massey Secondary School. 

"Certainly I live right by Holy Names … those two schools really rely on these buses," said Ward 10 Coun. Jim Morrison, noting at full capacity, about 350 Holy Names students use the bus each afternoon. 

The city's acting commissioner of infrastructure services said staff would move forward with council's direction. 

"We're going to move forward with council's direction and we're going to provide the best service to the citizens that we can with the allocation that we've got and I think we'll do a great job of providing service to the transit users," said Mark Winterton. 

This is the first time the city's budget is being put forward by Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, after the province granted some Ontario mayors additional powers last year. 

Under the new system, the mayor prepares the budget with staff, and councillors have the ability to suggest amendments. But those amendments must be supported by council before the mayor can consider them. 

Dilkens said he expects the city's budget process will be complete this week.