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A new report is shining a spotlight on Thunder Bay Transit’s safety issues, and the steps the agency is taking to address them.
The report, which will be presented to city council on Monday, includes data gathered between Jan. 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, and shows a total of 1,067 “negative interactions” on buses and at transit depots and stops were reported during that period.
“The number of occurrences shows that the problem is quite significant,” Brad Loroff, the city’s manager of transit services, said. “A lot of the occurrences are attributed to things that are beyond transit’s control, dealing with, potentially, people who are suffering from mental health and addictions issues.”
“There’s certainly evidence of transit being used as a shelter space in some instances, and random acts of aggressive behaviours from people,” he said. “It’s an informative report, and tracking this data in this way is helping us have a better understanding as to what actually is being experienced on the system, and work towards some ongoing initiatives to try and provide the best level of protection.”
The “negative interactions” include instances of assault, harassment, acts of aggression, verbal altercations, fare disputes, and intoxication, involving transit operators, passengers, or the general public outside of a transit bus.
Intoxication — which can involve unresponsive passengers, or intoxicated passengers “causing a safety concern” for themselves or others — accounts for the majority of negative interactions on city transit, the report states.
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds said he’d like to see the city form some partnerships with other agencies to help address intoxication on public transit.
“People who are intoxicated, we need to get them to a safe place, because being in public is probably not a safe place for citizens and the people who are intoxicated,” Foulds said. “I’m not sure if dealing with intoxicated people is always a police issue.”
“I think sometimes it is, particularly around the violence piece,” he said. “If it’s an emergency and a crisis and people are in immediate danger, absolutely … police need to be involved. But I do think that there is another piece, which is the mental health and addictions piece.”
The report states transit is looking into launching a pilot project that would see third-party agencies respond to incidents around City Hall, part of an effort to reduce calls to emergency services. Loroff said an expression of interest will be released next year to help determine how feasible such a program may be.
“Some larger transit agencies across the nation have gone to this type of a deployment method, where rather than rely strictly on a security or a police response to these types of what are really social issues, there’s the potential to engage and build partnerships with community outreach workers, street outreach organizations,” Loroff said. “Whether or not there is an opportunity here in Thunder Bay to do that, whether or not something like that would be feasible, to replicate some of these types of programs that exist in some larger centres, that’s what we’re hoping to do, is to just do a little bit more research to see what’s out there.”
In terms of where the incidents actually occurred, the majority — 59 per cent — occurred on buses travelling a transit route, while the remainder occurred at bus stops or depots:
- 17 per cent of incidents occurred at the City Hall depot;
- 11 per cent at the Waterfront Terminal, and
- The remaining 13 per cent took place at other bus stops across Thunder Bay.
The report also includes an update on various initiatives and measures being implemented by transit to increase safety.
Those include:
- Simplifying the incident reporting process, with completion expected by mid-2024;
- De-escalation training for all frontline transit employees, expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2024;
- Vehicle improvements, including a new electronic fare management system (second quarter 2024) and new protective barriers for drivers;
- Review of city hall security, and
- Improved employee outreach and support following an incident.
Loroff said there is a lot of work underway, not only at transit, but across the city, to address safety concerns.
“There is heavy involvement with the corporation’s corporate safety division,” Loroff said. “The report speaks to the Employee Safety Task Force that has already been struck, and has been functioning for some time, and that’s a task force that has representation from other frontline areas across the city that have frontline staff that may experience these similar types of things.”
“There’s lots of activity on all fronts. I think the report does a good job with providing an overview for council as to what is being experienced from a data perspective, and what measures are currently being worked on and underway.”
The full report is available on the city’s website, and will be presented to council on Monday for information only.
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