Rural councillors want to explore private transit service in their wards

Ottawa City Hall is seen in this undated file photo. (CTV News Ottawa)

Ottawa’s agriculture and rural affairs committee approved a motion on Thursday that would explore options to allow private bus service to supplement transit options.

Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown put forward the motion, which calls on city staff to explore the feasibility of working with private mass transit companies to supplement rural transit service and connect residents in rural villages to major hubs such as OC Transpo Park & Rides, town centres or key employment areas. It also directs staff to review the rural transit funding model.

“Ultimately, the goal is to get as many people from where they are to where they need to go and to get as many cars off the road,” Brown said.

There were two public delegations at committee, one in favour and one against the motion.

“This is something that needs to be done and not possibly done. It does need to be done and sooner rather than later,” said Jerry Pearson, who runs a private transportation company.

“What I would recommend in my eyes, and not just because I’m a private company that would like to do this service, but because of the residents alone, there is a high need for this.”

Noah Vineberg, president of ATU Local 279, which represents OC Transpo workers, told the committee he is opposed to handing out parts of the transit system to the private sector.

“We support improving rural transit. We support better connections between communities. This motion does more than that, it introduces private delivery as a path forward before we have fully explored solutions within our own public system, and that matters,” he said.

Under the city’s bylaws, OC Transpo is the sole mass transit provider within the city.

“Once you move toward private partnerships, you introduce new problems. You create inconsistency in service, you create inequality in access, and you create barriers between services that should be fully integrated,” Vineberg said. “Ottawa already has a system that serves residents based on demand. Rural areas already receive service and that service can be expanded within OC Transpo. If this was about improving service, we would be talking about OC Transpo delivery.”

Brown said OC Transpo’s urban service delivery area is smaller, geographically, than his ward, which includes Manotick, Richmond, Munster, and North Gower.

“When we talk about scaling, I think there’s a real conversation to be had there, but I don’t know how we scale appropriately across an area that becomes a little more population dispersed the further you move out from the centre of the city and I think that’s the circle we’re having a hard time squaring here,” he said.

OC Transpo’s directory of customer systems Pat Scrimgeour told councillors more buses would need to be ordered to expand OC Transpo service in rural communities. OC Transpo has hundreds of zero-emission buses on order, but Scrimgeour said they’re meant for existing service.

“All of these new buses that are on order right now are to replace life-expired buses. They’re not to expand the fleet or expand the service,” he said.

The motion passed unanimously and will be brought before city council on April 8.

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