GOLD: Lukes’ Christmas gift to Transit scofflaws — keep ridin’!

Article content

Public Works chair Janice Lukes made an announcement about Winnipeg Transit safety on Thursday that seemed geared to ensure that no one, especially not criminals, would be offended. Maybe it’s because she was recently served with notice of legal action twice.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Perhaps criminals weren’t offended, but those facing the most danger, the bus drivers, whose leader describes the current environment as “the Wild West,” must have been.

With fare evasion usually pegged at $6M a year — but believed to be more like $10M — Lukes is implementing her idea of a solution to the problem.

Keep letting the scofflaws onto the bus.

“It’s not going to be ‘you can’t get on the bus if you’re not paying’,” she told CTV.

That’s the exact opposite of what Amalgamated Transit Union President Chris Scott and his members demanded at their rally at City Hall on Nov. 26.

Fare enforcement was at the top of their list, because 95% of the violence and troublemaking on Transit routes is caused by people who don’t pay their fare.

Article content

Article content

“It’s going to be an education approach,” Lukes said, “there’s a lot of programs that folks can sign up for (to receive a reduced fare).”

It seems that Lukes, in her rare forays on a bus, has never actually seen fare-skippers in action. After 10 months riding Transit this year, I can fill her in.

Sometimes, the riders politely ask for a break. The “I don’t have change, I have to get to work, just going a few blocks and it’s raining” type of request. Without exception, I saw drivers thank the rider for asking, and let them on.

Then, there’s some other categories of freeloaders.

Teens and young adults hop on and blow past the fare box a lot more often than you’d think. Around certain high schools, a gaggle of 15 kids will be at the stop, with the first couple paying and the rest waltzing on.

Article content

At night, 20-somethings going to and from bars stride and stagger onto the bus without a care. They spend money at the bar but think the ride home or to the afterparty is an entitlement.

These are examples of a sub-culture that has developed that if someone else doesn’t have to pay, they don’t either.

If Lukes thinks those cases are all eligible for discount fare programs, she’s very far detached from the reality on Winnipeg streets.

The last category is the one Lukes is more so talking about — the poor and indigent. While some are apologetic when they board, many others are rude, loud and cause disturbances, including music at full blast, drinking, doing drugs and threatening other passengers. That’s “the 95%” the ATU needs to be protected from.

Article content

The chances they will listen to an admonition from a transit operator to go online, use a computer to register and keep some sort of special pass on them, or pay double next time they ride — is approximately zero.

Lukes also promotes the fiction that “Community Safety Officers” — with eight more hires slated for 2025 — will help enforce fares.

The media gladly plays along with her ruse, but in July here’s what Community Safety Team Lead Bob Chrismas told me: “We are not transit employees or Transit fare enforcement. If they’ve asked us to come along, we’ll assist if there’s violence.”

Coun. Lukes somehow believes that the officers who don’t enforce fares and don’t take the initiative to prevent violent characters from getting on our buses, will enforce fares and manage the mayhem. Fat chance.

Article content

As Kate Kehler of the Social Planning Council stated to CBC, adding to the Safety Officer program has yet to be justified.

“It’s not even a year old … but they’re still going to get an expansion. And my question is, based on what evidence?”

Lukes is against fare enforcement because, she claimed, “this is where the most conflict occurs, is with enforcement, so it has to happen in a way where we don’t have massive explosions.”

As Scott said to CTV, however, “people feel they can do whatever they want because there’s no consequences.”

Don’t provoke the criminals at the door by asking them to do what we expect of law-abiding bus users, seems to be her message.

No fare enforcement, no violation tickets, no consequences.

If the Transit Advisory Committee, whose current membership is still being hidden from the public weeks after I complained to the City, is behind this, then Lukes should say so. The group should hold an open meeting to face the public.

Article content

Meanwhile, with a straight face, Lukes and Mayor Scott Gillingham are telling Transit riders to fork out an outrageous $3.35 in the New Year for a service that’s almost never on time and isn’t safe.

“If you choose to be inactive on safety, the next death, whether it’s a member of the riding public or an employee, that blood will be on your hands, not mine,” Scott said at the November rally.

That’s the gamble that Janice Lukes is taking.

— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

Article content