The following speech was delivered at the February 12th Transit Committee meeting by Noah Vineberg, president of the local union representing transit workers in Ottawa (ATU 279).
I am here today alongside our elected Local Executive Board representing over 2200
OC Transpo workers that work tirelessly day in and day out to keep our city moving.
With a municipal election approaching, the people of Ottawa are watching a sudden
outbreak of concern about a crisis that some of you sitting at this table helped create.
This transit collapse did not just suddenly go off the rails.
It was caused, vote by vote, budget by budget, and decision by decision.
For years, ATU Local 279, our members, and transit riders told you exactly where this
path was heading.
You had the warnings.
You had the authority.
You chose to ignore both.
What is unacceptable is watching decision-makers now ask how this happened, when
many of you at these tables held the power and responsibility for the very decisions that
brought us here.
This crisis was not sudden. It was predictable. Chronic underfunding, unrealistic expectations, and the exclusion of frontline voices have consequences.
This system has been run dry, and the tank is empty. Your workers and your customers have nothing left to give.
You cannot keep cutting service, compressing schedules, eroding worker protections,
and disciplining at record levels, then act shocked when recruitment and retention
collapses. The service fails, and the publics confidence disappears.
The era of squeezing workers to cover your failures is over.
What concerns us deeply is that we have seen this movie before.
Underfund the service.
Criticize the results.
Then point to privatization as the solution.
We are already seeing the warning signs: contracting out work that was once done safely in-house, procurement decisions made without listening to operators and mechanics, and a growing narrative that public transit just does not work.
The solution has always been right here the entire time. Transit works when it is funded, respected, and run with the expertise of the people who deliver it. Today, operators are pushed to the limit – without time and basic facilities. Runs have no buffer or mitigations for the realities of our City. Members safety is tested more than ever. Maintenance deteriorates in spite of the valiant efforts of our mechanics and maintenance staff. Para Transpo services continue to be inequitable and lacks essential needs to serve our most vulnerable.
Safety risks rise. And when workers finally break under that pressure, they are punished financially and forced to work under duress – while systemic failures continue untouched or covered up.
That is not accountability. That is scapegoating.
Public transit is an essential service and a public good, not a testing ground for
privatization and budget cuts. We call on every Commissioner, City Councillor, and every candidate seeking office to commit publicly to a real transit plan: one that rejects the underfund–criticize–privatize cycle, includes worker and rider voices, and treats transit as a human right.
ATU Local 279 will continue to speak, organize, and hold you accountable on behalf of our workers and alongside our ridership.
The people of Ottawa deserve better. Our members deserve dignity.
And this system will not recover without listening to those who proudly keep it moving.