Council votes to keep Tunnel Bus alive, but mayor has 10 days to veto decision

On Monday, council voted to maintain service and double the Tunnel Bus fare, but it could still be on the chopping block. CTV Windsor's Sanjay Maru explains.

Despite a recommendation in the proposed city budget to cancel the Tunnel Bus and Special Events bus services, a contentious debate among Windsor city councillors has resulted in both being saved.

The proposed 2025 city budget, tabled by Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens in early January, suggested cutting the services to keep the property tax increase at a modest 2.99 per cent.

Retaining the Tunnel Bus would increase the tax levy by about 0.2 percentage points, to around 3.1 per cent.

On Monday, council voted 7-4 to double the Tunnel Bus fare from $10 to $20, with the remaining costs to be covered through additional property taxes.

The proposal to eliminate the Tunnel Bus sparked significant opposition from residents, including a few dozen who rallied outside city hall, urging councillors to keep the service running.

Cutting the Tunnel Bus was expected to save the city about $1.4 million in its operating budget.

According to Dilkens, the cost of the service increased significantly a few years ago when the federal government required the city to provide 10 paid sick days for all Transit Windsor drivers.

This mandate applies because Transit Windsor drivers fall under federal jurisdiction due to the service crossing an international border.

The sick-day requirement applies to all 300 Transit Windsor employees, even though city staff report that only 15 to 20 of them work directly with the Tunnel Bus.

During Monday’s meeting, Dilkens placed responsibility for the financial challenges associated with the Tunnel Bus on the federal government.

“There’s a hundred reasons to have the Tunnel Bus. You would not be having the discussion about getting rid of the tunnel bus [if not] for that legislation. So I do not accept the responsibility for even having to bring this,” said Dilkens.

“This is definitely an extra service. It is not a core service that the municipality offers. It’s about how you rationalize this in a business sense and making the dollars and cents make sense.”

A motion to raise the one-way fare for the Tunnel Bus and Special Events Bus to $20 was supported by Couns. Angelo Marignani, Fabio Costante, Fred Francis, Gary Kaschak, Kieran McKenzie and Renaldo Agostino.

“This is literally, you could argue, probably the only formal link we have with the City of Detroit,” said Francis. “It’s a unique factor that no other city in the country has. I’m not ready to give that up at this time.”

Ed Sleiman, Mark McKenzie, Jo-Anne Gignac and Mayor Dilkens opposed the motion.

Gignac referred to the federally-mandated sick days as the “nail in the coffin” for the Tunnel Bus.

She also spoke out against a recent statement issued by Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk which expressed support for keeping the Tunnel Bus alive.

“I think it’s really rich to see the Member of Parliament hold up a newsletter that says to save the tunnel bus when it was federal legislation that literally killed it,” said Gignac.

Costante said the Tunnel Bus aligns with Windsor’s Strengthen the Core plan to get more people “living, working and playing downtown.”

“This is a conscious choice of priorities,” said Costante. “This is one of the greatest assets we have.”

Mayor Dilkens will have 10 days, following Monday’s council meeting, to veto any council amendments made during budget deliberations.

“I will look at it,” said Dilkens, following Monday’s meeting.

“This one we need to look at because there’s no end in sight with the particular loss on the tunnel bus.”

Council will then have 15 more days to overturn any mayoral vetoes. A minimum 8-3 vote — two-thirds of council — will be required to do so.