Saskatoon Transit service disruptions last winter caused by poor management: auditor

Service disruptions that left Saskatoon bus riders out in the cold last winter were caused by ineffective management of inventory and staff, according to a report from the city auditor.

Disruptions escalated through January and February, with the city addressing it publically in March. Saskatoon City Council asked the auditor to investigate in April.

At the time, Saskatoon Transit Director Jim McDonald told council that cold weather and supply chain issues were to blame.

"We are running into issues with parts availability with COVID. That has been an issue that is around North America in terms of the bus industry,” he said.

Not so, says the city auditor.

The auditor’s report says transit supply stores were short-staffed and poorly managed, operating at only 66 per cent of their regular staffing level. At times, even when there were replacement buses available, they weren’t sent out due to a communication breakdown.

The auditor said there are generally four staff working in the stores each day out of six total.

During its critical service disruptions, “it was not unusual that one stores staff was present during the day,” the report said.

“It is unclear why additional staff were not hired, but we concluded that stores staffing was not adequate during the period of disruption.”

Bus Riders of Saskatoon representative Robert Clipperton says those disruptions affect people’s lives.

“That shift worker that gets off work dead-tired at four o'clock, goes to catch their 4:15 bus to find that there won't be a bus until five,” he said.

“Or that person who’s on their way to their medical appointment, they think, and find they've missed that specialist appointment that they waited for months to get because the bus that they were expecting didn't come.”

According to the report, only 60 per cent of buses received timely preventative maintenance during the last two years, increasing the likelihood of breakdowns.

“When you’ve got 130-some buses to look after you need to track all of that information very carefully, and of course they’ve got software that will do that, but according to their auditor’s report there wasn’t sufficient training and tech support,” said Clipperton, whose organization has been calling for better public transit service since 2014.

In November 2021 the city had 95 working buses in its fleet, but by March 2022 only 56 buses were available. This is far below the 84 buses required daily to meet its service schedules, the report said.

Clipperton says if public transit is an essential service, as the auditor’s report calls it, then it should be treated as such.

“Would anybody put up with sporadic water coming out of their taps, either in terms of quantity or quality,” he questioned. “Would you be satisfied if you didn't know when your electricity was going to be on or off?”

With files from Pat McKay