Just weeks after a bus strike was averted, transit union members in the Central Okanagan say they’re facing yet another challenge after First Transit was acquired by a multi-national company, Transdev North America.
Scott Lovell, financial secretary of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1722 in Kelowna, told Global News that the news was frustrating.
“Since the inception of this transit organization, there have been five different management companies. We’re kind of doing the tour of Europe right now if you think about it,” said Lovell.
“This is the Central Okanagan, this is residents, this is their transit system and it’s being treated like a game. You buy and sell players. That’s not acceptable.”
The sale is subject to conditions, but they have been bought as is, so Lovell says this shouldn’t affect arbitration, which is set for December of this year.
“They’ve purchased the entire assets. They have to purchase it as is, so they can’t just all of a sudden say no, because they’ve already agreed to binding arbitration.”
He continued, saying, if they did go back, it would be “very bad”.
There were conversations had by outgoing mayor Colin Basran with B.C.’s transportation minister. Basran wanted to bring in a new service model instead of sourcing out of the country.
Lovell says it looks like talks will continue with the city’s new mayor and council.
“All the mayoral candidates said the same thing at one of the meetings that they had, that it really needs to be in the hands of the public.,” Lovell said.
“You take out that middleman, that’s millions of taxpayers’ dollars that could go into the systems.”
According to a news release from First Transit, the deal is expected to close in early 2023. Until then, it will be business as usual for both companies.
Financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed.