Brampton Transit workers move closer to strike as City inks $11M deal with private bus firm

The City of Brampton has one of the fastest growing transit systems in the country, used by tens of thousands of residents every day. 

The surge in ridership is a municipal success story. Cities across Canada are trying to make the complex shift to more sustainable modes of transit to move residents through their dense urban environments. It’s a significant opportunity for Brampton to be a sustainable leader while taking advantage of other benefits the massive demand offers. 

That opportunity is being squandered by Mayor Patrick Brown and his council.

Cancelled projects; overcrowded buses due to a lack of service; underinvestment and mismanagement have become hallmarks of Brampton’s transit system since Brown took control of City Hall in 2018. It has led to a daily barrage of complaints on social media.

In a matter of days, the union representing 1,400 bus drivers, maintenance workers and other staff critical to keeping the system operational, could walk off the job.

The struggling system is already causing issues for Brampton residents. 

Manik Verma, an international student pursuing a computer systems designation at St. Clair College said others like him need Brampton Transit, and waiting for delayed buses often causes them to arrive late to college or work.

"That's the main problem,” he said. “One of the examples is that Route 23, like, my friend lives there, and I have to go there daily because we are very close to each other, and he lives with his relatives, so he mostly complains about the 23 because previously the service was after 15 to 20 minutes, but now it's 30 to 45 minutes, which is very difficult for us to meet each other."

A collection of the various complaints Brampton Transit receives through its X account. 

After two days of unsuccessful talks with City officials at the end of April to reach a deal on a new contract, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1573, representing 1,400 bus drivers, maintenance workers and other staff said its workers could go on strike as early as May 23. 

The union has approved the strike mandate with 99 percent of ATU members voting against the City management’s offer, accusing them of “bad faith bargaining”. The union accused senior City staff of stepping back from an already-agreed-upon wage offer. Management has reduced wage offers “significantly”, according to an ATU press release. 

"We need the employer to see us where we are," Andrew Salabie, President of ATU Local 1573, said in an interview with The Pointer. "We're really looking for overall changes to our contract that reflect the hard work of our members."

Brampton Transit union President Andrew Salabie says management has not bargained in good faith, walking back previous wage offers.

(Supplied)

He didn’t share details of the bargaining process.

"We're doing the best we can to come to terms with the employer, and we're exercising whatever means that are available to us to ensure that the employer hears our voice.”

In a statement released May 6, City of Brampton officials stated they are “committed to negotiating a fair, multi-year agreement that acknowledges the ATU’s contributions while ensuring fiscal responsibility for Brampton taxpayers.”

It’s a departure from Mayor Patrick Brown’s recent aggressive push to increase the Peel Police budget 23.3 percent this year, an extra $144 million for the force and its officers, widely described as an alarmingly reckless move with dire consequences for Brampton taxpayers. 

Meanwhile, staff working under Brown’s heavy-handed leadership are now talking about the need for “fiscal responsibility” while dealing with transit workers.

The strike mandate was first given in March when both sides failed to reach a deal. The ATU president said the union is hopeful that reconciliation talks will resume once a “no-board” report is officially submitted. It is a formal notice sent to the Ministry of Labour informing the provincial government the union is in a position to strike. 

"Right now, neither side has indicated when the next round will take place. We're just waiting on that no-board report," Salabie said. "As soon as we have that official filing, we'll most likely try to set up some dates and get back to the table as soon as possible so we can avoid a possible disruption."

Thousands of Brampton residents rely on public transportation every day to get around the city, many of them to get to and from work. During the decade leading up to the pandemic, from 2009 to 2019, transit usage increased 160 percent, with a 38 percent increase in just three years (2016-2019). In 2023 alone, approximately 41 million people relied on Brampton Transit, an uptick of 31 percent from 2022. These figures are well above the provincial average increase of 2.3 percent and the national average of 6.9 percent over three years.

The City of Brampton’s data showed transit ridership in 2024 increased by 40 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The surge in demand for service has not been met with investment by Brown and his council followers, who have ignored badly needed infrastructure to expand the city’s overburdened system.

There are no transit performance figures available on the City’s website beyond 2022 statistics, when data showed the transit system had been deteriorating steadily since Brown became mayor and immediately froze Brampton’s budget, crippling departments including transit.

Despite the need for billions of dollars to transform the fleet from dirty diesel, Brown has ignored external reports warning that continued mismanagement will lead to bills that will devastate taxpayers in the future.

Under Brown, the City has stopped publishing the on-time statistics for transit performance while staff have failed to make customer complaint volumes public. Updated ridership data has also been neglected on the website for almost a year.

Brampton Transit ridership data has not been updated on the City's website since July 2024. 

(City of Brampton)

Three years ago, explaining why the measurement of transit performance is “important”, city officials wrote that “On-time performance is one indicator that provides insight into the reliability of our transit system. The measure is used to inform scheduling and resource requirements to keep transit riders moving.” Now, in keeping with Brown’s leadership style, such information is no longer available on the City website, while social media has seen an explosion of complaints about Brampton Transit. 

Brown has stripped the council calendar of meetings needed to address critical information. Agendas that do make their way onto the public docket are devoid of staff reports and critical details that used to keep transit users informed, while decision making has been removed from the public process. There is no opportunity to bring forward complaints or concerns through the previous council process that had been used for decades.

Despite the need to green the transit fleet, under council’s own pollution reduction commitments, Brown slashed bus purchases nearly in half this year, from $89.7 million to $55.3 million, leaving transit operators struggling to meet rising demand while dirty diesel buses are still the focus. Crucial funding for bus refurbishments, shelters, and pads, totalling $15.7 million, was also removed, while a $1.5 million contribution for high-order transit on the Bovaird corridor and $17.8 million for Zum service expansion to the Bramalea Corridor have also been cut.

On April 8, The City of Vaughan published a staff report that revealed the long anticipated Queen Street Bus Rapid Transit project to connect Brampton to York Region, had been suspended: “Due to a lack of project funding, Metrolinx is suspending further work on the Queen Street and Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit planning process.”

Brown has since claimed this is not accurate, a pattern since he became mayor of cutting funding and then claiming projects are still moving forward. 

It was the same story with a major transit maintenance facility needed to expand the city’s system and with the Main Street LRT, which Brown has repeatedly falsely claimed has funding. It still has no funding attached to it.

Since 2018, Brampton’s transit system has routinely been ignored by Brown and senior staff at City Hall. The transit maintenance facility critical to expand service and electrify the fleet has been postponed and is years behind schedule due to Brown’s cuts and lack of investment; the Hurontario LRT extension into downtown cannot move forward without a full environmental assessment and funding commitments. Despite claims by Brown for years that these critical needs would be met, he has failed to prioritize them. The City is without a plan to finance the approximately $9 billion it will cost to transition the bus fleet from dirty diesel buses to electric. 

Brown’s critics have said he is not interested in the city and only holds onto the mayor’s seat as a way to get back into party politics. He has twice failed to re-enter federal politics while serving as mayor, and was heavily criticized in 2022 for not taking a leave while he campaigned across the country for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership; he was eventually disqualified when the party said he violated campaign finance rules.

Recently, during the Ontario provincial election, he was busy campaigning for his mother-in-law who won a seat in Queen’s Park after Brown organized staff from Brampton City Hall to help her win the race.  

The lack of investment in Brampton during his distracted leadership has impacted residents across the city, with the looming transit strike the latest possible setback.

On April 30, the same day the union declined what it described as an unacceptable wage offer from management, a press release announced a new $10.9 million partnership between the City of Brampton and private transit operator Argo Corporation. 

The 12-month pilot project will see a “fully electric Smart Routing transit system” deployed in the city. According to the press release, the system will allow Brampton residents to request rides “near their door” for a “standard fee”. 

It’s unclear how this will impact Brampton Transit routes. The press release notes Argo buses will provide transfers to Brampton Transit and GO train service. Argo launched in Bradford West Gwillimbury at the beginning of April and a press release from the Town notes the Argo buses will be replacing the town’s fixed bus routes in the coming months. 

It is unclear if routes will also be cancelled in Brampton to make way for the private bus service. The Pointer could not find any staff reports detailing the plan or how the decision to use almost $11 million of Brampton taxpayer dollars was reached. There was no council debate or committee discussions and residents were completely shut out from the decision to use their money.

The City of Brampton did not answer questions about how the partnership with Argo came about. 

Salabie told The Pointer that he was surprised when he learned about the program.

"From the union's perspective, the timing, obviously, is not ideal," he said. "I really don't have enough information to report back on the Argo situation right now, we as the union are still working on to gather information so that we can respond accordingly and appropriately, but it was definitely a shock when it was brought forward at the negotiation table and then when we saw the media release."

If union contract demands are not met by the City, and workers head to the picket lines this month, Brampton Transit users might face major disruptions across the city. The ATU Local 1573 stated in a press release that transit users will be given sufficient notice before they experience any inconvenience.

"The ATU takes great pride in providing safe, reliable, and accessible service to all Brampton residents who rely on public transit and will ensure that the public is given a minimum of 72 hours' advance notice before strike lines and service disruptions begin," the union said.

Salabie explained to The Pointer that among the 1,400 union members who unanimously rejected the City’s current contract offer, there is a diverse range of workers from drivers to maintenance staff.

"Yeah, that would be operators, drivers and maintenance staff," he said. "That covers a whole spiel of maintenance workers, including, but not limited to preventative maintenance acts, General Service persons, mechanics, ETS, tire techs, so much more, but and also facilities workers and then, of course, our administrative staff that are unionized and part time staff as well."

According to a press release from the City of Brampton, in the event of a strike, no buses will be running and “The public is encouraged to plan alternative travel arrangements.”

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