As transit riders know, over the course of the past week or so, our bus service has deteriorated rapidly. Buses aren’t showing up and certainly not coming on time. Now, yesterday, OC Transpo put out a memo that was actually very helpful describing their response to the immediate crisis. I’ve posted that memo here.
What’s not helpful is the spin that’s coming out of City Hall. Yesterday’s memo repeats Mark Sutcliffe’s talking point that we’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve service. What it doesn’t say is that almost all of that money is earmarked to open and operate the eastern extension of LRT. LRT is absolutely critical to the sustainable future of this city, but it doesn’t help your bus come on time.
In 2024, OC Transpo spent around $434 million on bus maintenance and operations. In 2025, that number went down to around $416, $417 million. The 2026 budget has an increase in spending of just 0.7% over that.
Now, to be fair, the loss of the carbon tax means that OC Transpo will spend around $9 million less on fuel. If all of that is allocated towards bus maintenance and operations, that would still represent an increase of just $12 million, or 2.9%. Now, OC Transpo is doing the best it can with the hand it’s been dealt with respect to the delay in bus delivery.But don’t let anyone tell you that we’re spending hundreds of millions of new dollars to solve the problem in the near term.
We’re not.
When your bus isn’t coming, you deserve straight answers about what OC Transpo is doing to fix the problem and how we’re going to restore transit that works.