Saskatoon city council discusses dedicated transit support workers

An ongoing discussion regarding safety on Saskatoon transit continued at a city council meeting on Wednesday. Council discussing the matter of dedicated transit support workers.

A city report recommends including the consideration of dedicated transit support workers to be included into a review of the current community support program. The review would include Saskatoon transit, the Saskatoon Fire Department, and other community services.

Executive director of the Broadway business improvement district DeeAnn Mercier spoke at council, and opposed looking at dedicated transit support workers and the community support program in the same review.

“When I was reading these recommendations it really seemed like it wanted to marry the CSP program service delivery model together and have those conversations together,” Mercier told council. “I’m not saying these conversations need to be divorced, but I’m saying I don’t think they need to be together in the first place.”

Mercier acknowledged the conversation about transit support workers is very important, but said it needs to be done separately.

Saskatoon resident Mary Fedun told council there are transit operators who avoid certain routes because they are afraid.

“We’ve got drivers, several, who do not want to drive specifically in the west, other routes have different issues, but the west, there’s such a problem,” said Fedun.

“A step has to be taken,” she added. “We’d like to see somebody.”

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Council voted in favour of the administration recommendation. Ward 1 councillor Darren Hill was the only opposing vote.

A separate information report from fire chief Morgan Hackl outlines a new suggestion.

The report states through discussion with the BIDs, it was identified that transitioning operations of the community support program to the Saskatoon Fire Department in 2024 may be a suitable option.

The fire department would continue to offer the same level of service in the business improvement districts, as well as support workers for Saskatoon Transit.

“This is where a transit model will require targeted support and we believe it’s worth consideration for an overall community approach,” said Hackl.

Hackl said the Saskatoon police and fire department share information and data that would aid it in its service, also involving Saskatoon Transit and the various business improvement districts.

“What we believe is a model that is good today, we have the opportunity to create a more effective model,” Hackl added.

Moving forward the city will continue to review the data, report back, and eventually bring forward options for city council at 2024/2025 budget deliberations at the end of 2023.