City lost around $65K to faulty transit fare machine last year: audit report

The city auditor says a malfunctioning smart fare machine let fraudsters steal tens of thousands of dollars from the City of Edmonton over several months.

A faulty Arc Card machine cost Edmonton around $65,000 between 2024 and 2025, according to a city audit.

The Office of the City Auditor’s (OCA) report found that around $65,000 worth of fake transactions happened at a malfunctioning Smart Fare Machine between September 2024 and June 13, 2025.

The report didn’t specify at which station the broken machine was located and noted the suspicious transactions were done by an “unknown” number of individuals across more than 300 Arc Cards.

Around $20,000 on blocked cards was recovered, reducing total revenue losses to around $45,000 by the time officials became privy to the situation.

The case was reported to Edmonton police, but the Arc cards were unregistered and too much time had passed, meaning nobody was charged, the report said.

The Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) has reinforced its control procedures, according to the OCA.

The OCA’s full report will go to the city’s Audit Committee on Friday.

“I’m very glad the auditor caught it,” said Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz, who sits on the committee, on Tuesday. “That shows that the system is working … certainly with any new technology, there can be these challenges.”

While he couldn’t reveal much about details ahead of Friday’s meeting, he said councillors would be looking to gain insight from the Arc Card company and any other contractual providers about course correcting.

Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford, who also sits on the committee, echoed the role independent auditors play in keeping city operations running smoothly.

Other substantiated investigations were briefly outlined in the report as well. One, for example, involved a City of Edmonton employee accused of misappropriating $1,200 worth of gift cards to purchase city goods and services. City administration filed a police report and fired the employee.

“I just want to reinforce to Edmontonians that the system does work in terms of, we have a fraud report line … (cases) are investigated and actions are taken to address fraud, including termination,” Rutherford said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson