City data obtained under the Access to Information Act reveals that nearly $3.5 million in trespassing fines were issued by transit peace officers to people with no fixed address in 2025. A joint report from the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association (CTLA), the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights (CJHR), and Justice and Equity Alberta (JEA) said last year saw the highest number of transit-related tickets issued to people with no fixed address since at least 2018. “The city is spending taxpayer money on the administration of over $3 million in fines that will be difficult to actually collect and compounds barriers to housing and employment for the recipient of the ticket,” said CJHR president Sam Mason in a statement. Transit peace officers (TPOs) issue trespass tickets, which are $600 a pop, when they have reason to believe a person is on transit property despite being banned. People can be banned from Edmonton transit property verbally or in writing. Verbal bans last for one or two days while written bans can last between three months and two years. Verbal bans are issued for minor bylaw infractions and written bans for situations that cause safety concerns for customers, employees or property. “The city’s policy of banning hundreds of unhoused people from using transit, an essential service, often for months and then issuing them $600 trespass tickets for breaching those bans is cruel, counter-productive, and has failed to make Edmontonians feel safer using transit,” said lawyer Chris Wiebe with the CTLA and JEA. In 2025, 647 written bans were issued, nearly half of which were for drug use. There were 369 verbal bans issued the same year. “I ask our elected officials, at all levels, what policy decisions they have made that would discourage people from using drugs in the public realm?,” said Mason. “They can’t use the closed down supervised consumption sites, the waiting lists for voluntary addictions treatment are growing, and they don’t have a fixed address, where are they supposed to go?” Together, the report’s parties are calling on municipal, provincial and federal governments to significantly increase funding for adequate and accessible emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing and subsidized housing, and transitional housing, as well as the reestablishment of safe consumption sites. Mayor Andrew Knack says difficult circumstances have led some Edmontonians to rely on transit stations as places of shelter. “Long-term solutions must focus on helping people access stable housing, as well as the mental health and addictions services they need to navigate their circumstance and build greater stability outside transit centres, and instead in spaces designed to offer these supports,” said the mayor in a statement. The province said it has invested $227 million to combat homelessness in Alberta, including about 2,000 shelter spaces in Edmonton. “By providing more pathways to treatment and recovery, we can help more people get the care they need while relieving pressure on emergency services and front-line organizations,” said a statement from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction. City eyeing turnstile pilot project Last month city council narrowly passed a motion put forward by Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi Coun. Jon Morgan that would look into a turnstile pilot project at one of Edmonton’s LRT stations. The first-time councillor and ETS veteran said data from the report supports his motion. “Fair gates help with making sure that people are paying when they come into the station. You don’t pay, the gates don’t open, you don’t go in,” said Morgan. “That really takes the time away from peace officers where they’re giving out those tickets to really deal with more serious crime that’s going on in our system.” City administration will bring its report on a fare gate pilot project to the urban planning committee on Nov. 17.
