(Toronto, ON) – Transit users, transit workers, and experts from community organizations held a public dialogue on Thursday, February 9th, 2023 at Centennial College - Progress Campus.
Over 200 people attended online and in person to share their ideas about how to create a safer public transit system for everyone. Toronto City Council will vote on its 2023 budget on February 15, 2023.
Quick facts:
-
The 2023 TTC budget proposes a 9% reduction compared to pre-pandemic service levels, up to 10-minute waits for the subway, and a 10-cent increase for adult and youth single fares. The low-income Fair Pass discount program will only be made available to 8,000-12,000 people in 2023; 200,000 more people are meant to be eligible.
-
Over 100 Toronto researchers released an open letter on February 8, 2023 warning that TTC service cuts will precipitate a downward ridership spiral.
-
The full cost of new staff and security roles on the TTC has not yet been made public. City staff reported on February 8, 2023 that the estimated monthly cost of paying 80 police officers overtime to patrol on TTC is $1.7 million.
-
The number of recorded offences against TTC users decreased from October 2022 to November 2022, from 2.11 offences per million boardings to 1.91 offences per million boardings, respectively. TTC data from December 2022 and January 2023 has not yet been made publicly available.
-
The Toronto Community Crisis Service’s multidisciplinary teams of crisis workers provide a trauma-informed response to non-emergency crisis calls and wellness checks.
-
Calgary Transit launched an Ambassador program in December 2022 to provide non-enforcement help to transit users, such as wayfinding.
Quotes from panelists and event organizers:
"Safety and dignity for disabled people means a fully accessible, affordable public transit system. Many marginalized communities are disproportionately disabled due to systemic inequities and oppression. Proposed TTC service cuts will make transit more crowded and less safe, especially for Wheel-Trans users being forced to take the bus, streetcar, and subway for parts of their trips due to the Family of Services policy. A safe TTC is a refuge and a lifeline for disabled, unhoused people. Criminalization and policing of racialized people with mental health issues or disabilities is not real safety."
– David Meyers, Centre for Independent Living Toronto (CILT)
“The scapegoating of poor and unhoused people for violence on public transit needs to end. They are residents who have every right to use public transportation. Increased police presence is not about the safety of poor and unhoused people; it is about invisibilizing and displacing them. ”
– Lorraine Lam, Outreach worker
“Mental health is a health issue and a health equity issue. We already know that many communities – including Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+ and racialized groups are overrepresented in apprehensions and under-represented in equitable access to the social determinants of health including equitable access to services that result in more positive health outcomes. People living with mental health and substance use needs are also over-represented in our criminal system and are more likely to be victims of violence. Gerstein Crisis Centre believes strongly in a model in which the earliest intervention for a mental health need is a health response, provided by a mental health worker rather than a criminal justice response. This provides opportunities to get help sooner, reduces stigma and avoids unnecessary police involvement.”
– Elaine Amsterdam, Gerstein Crisis Centre
“Public transit is a gender issue. We know that women make up the majority of public transit riders in Toronto, and are often subject to harassment, intimidation and violence while riding public transit or waiting at transit stops. In our study with Angus Reid Group in 2022, we found that 59% of women had experienced sexual harassment on transit – compared to 22% of men. We need gender-responsive strategies that are trauma-informed and based on evidence to address the violence on transit.”
– Devika Parsaud, Woman Abuse Council of Toronto (WomanACT)
“ATU 113 members are the eyes and ears of the TTC. We see what’s happening and what needs to happen to make the system safe for everyone. We know that we need a comprehensive safety and security plan that provides real housing solutions and a better way to respond to people in crisis. Our challenge will be to keep focused and working together whether or not violent incidents are making the news. Making transit safe, accessible, and reliable will require real, stable, ongoing investment, and real solutions from all levels of government.”
– Marvin Alfred, President of ATU Local 113
“Students already wait too long for the bus and service reductions will impact their quality of life and education. Service cuts mean less time spent in class and more time waiting for the bus late at night after class. Investment in public services strengthens student access to education.”
– Tima Shah, President of Centennial College Students’ Association Inc.
"Cutting transit service outside rush hours will be a disaster for neighbourhoods like Jane and Finch, where shift workers travel in the early mornings, afternoons, and evenings. These cuts will hurt people working multiple jobs, who don't have cars, who are racialized, newcomers, and youth. The people who rely most on transit are the people who keep our city running, who work in warehouses, factories, health care, personal support work, and shipping. Policing is the wrong approach to create safety on public transit and everywhere: Invest in good public services and supports, not approaches that create more harm for Black, Indigenous, and racialized people."
– Butterfly Sabrina Gopaul, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty
“A City of Toronto budget that provides more community support can address and dismantle anti-Asian racism, but raising TTC fares and increasing police presence are antithetical to this approach. CCNCTO has witnessed and sought to address the rise of anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic, which plays out on public transit and is a public safety issue that must be taken seriously.”
– Chinese Canadian National Council of Toronto (CCNCTO)
“Reducing service levels and increasing fees will not return ridership or enhance feelings of safety for women on public transportation. Crowded buses and cuts to off-peak service hours disproportionately impact women, shift workers and people living with disabilities. Simply hiring more special constables who double as fare collectors is unlikely to make the TTC feel safer for Black, Indigenous and racialized community members. Safety on public transportation is paramount but the conditions that uphold safety must be explored and invested in as much as security measures. Security does not equate to safety.”
– Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, Director of Advocacy and Communications at YWCA Toronto
“Sensationalizing violence on public transit risks driving riders away, scapegoating unhoused people, and missing a chance to tackle long-standing issues. TTC safety concerns are not new, and deserve serious, evidence-based approaches. Mayor Tory and City Councillors have the opportunity to make proactive investments to create a welcoming TTC for all, such as more transit service at all times of day, not service cuts, and investing in staff to provide help and support with wayfinding, accessibility, and crisis situations.”
– Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Executive Director, TTCriders
“A safe public transit system is important for its users as well as for those who operate it. This requires a well-thought out, long term plan based on solid evidence and data. It must be a multi-faceted, properly resourced plan that is both preventive and reactive. Simply deploying more police officers and TTC special constables is an expensive, sensationalist response whose effectiveness is not supported by evidence. It is a response that could, on the other hand, stigmatize people facing mental health challenges and put at risk Indigenous, Black and other racialized people using the transit system.”
– Alok Mukherjee, panel moderator and former Chair of Toronto Police Services Board