HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-23 Regular Council Meeting Supplemental Agenda and Reports.pdf11.STAFF REPORTS
11.3 HandyDART Service Advocacy Support Letter Request
Request for Council to endorse support letter and calls to action for Translink
Board.
RECOMMENDATION:
That Council be added as a supportive signatory to the "Open Letter to Rob
Fleming, Minister of Transportation and lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter, Minister
of State for lnfrastructure and Transit" and recommend Translink research and
explore the calls to action outlined.
Cit\ oI Maple Ridge
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SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA
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The purpose of a Council meeting is to enact powers given to Council using bylaws or resolutions. This is the venue
for debate of issues before voting on a bylaw or resolution.The meeting is live streamed and recorded by the City of
Maple Ridge. This Agenda is posted on the City’s Public Portal at:
https://mapleridge.primegov.com/public/portal
For virtual public participation during Public Question Period register by going to
Public Portal at: https://mapleridge.primegov.com/public/portal and clicking on the microphone icon
for the select meeting
6 MoPleRidge
TO:
FROM:
His Worship Mayor Dan Ruimy
and Members of Council
Chief Ad ministrative Officer
MEETING DATE:
FI[E NO:
MEETING:
April23,2024
01-0530-01
Council
SUBJECT: HandyDART Service Advocacy Support Letter Request
EXECUT¡VE SUMMARY:
ln March 2024 Council received a letter entitled "Open Letter to Rob Fleming, Minister of
Transportation and lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter, Minister of State for lnfrastructure and Transit"
regarding insourcing HandyDart (Attachment A). The letter and position paper, "Access for
Everyone? Publicly Operated HandyDart in Metro Vancouver" (Attachment B) was sent by By Eric
Doherty - Ecopath Planning consultancy firm for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724. Various
other stakeholders including municipalities, community groups, labour groups and unions have
signed onto the letter and calls to action for the Translink Board on the matter of ultimately
bringing HandyDART in-house at Translink. Maple Ridge has been sent the information to
consider joining the alliance and supporting this advocacy.
RECOMMENDATION:
That Council be added as a supportive signatory to the "Open Letter to Rob Fleming,
Minister of Transportation and lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter, Minister of State for
lnfrastructure and Transit" and recommend Translink research and explore the calls to
action outlined.
DISCUSSION:
a) Background Context:
An alliance of unions, disability advocates, other community groups and municipalities has been
formed to voice concerns over worsening service levels and conditions at Metro Vancouver's
HandyDART system. The "Open Letter to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and
lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter, Minister of State for lnfrastructure and Transit" received by
Council states that for years Metro Vancouver's most vulnerable populations have been
experiencing inadequate service levels that do not meet demand for HandyDART. Concerns are
raised over the erosion of service each year which is being attributed to Translink's increasingly
outsourced contracting model where taxi cabs are being used to provide HandyDART service. A
major issue identified is that private contractors have been struggling with attracting and retaining
enough staff to operate this service properly. According to the letter, Translink has used private
taxi cabs to provide 25o/" of HandyDART service in the last quarter of 2023, which far exceeds
Translink's previous commitment to limit taxi trips toTo/o of service.
Doc #3783519 Page I of2
The alliance calls for the Translink Board to:
7. Fulfill Translink's original pledge to limit the percentage of taxi trips to 7o/o or lower of
total HandyDART trips.
2. Develop and conduct an unbiased Public Sector Comparator (PSC) with a multiple
accounts evaluation containing rider and worker input, to compare insourcing to
continued outsourcing while considering safety and service quality.
3. Develop and implement a plan to bring HandyDART in-house as a subsidiary of
Translink, including providing provincial and federal funds for permanent facilities for an
expanded and electric HandyDART fleet.
b) Alternatives: Other operational options for HandyDART service could be considered for
advocacy that did not depend on either taxi services or full government agency insourcing.
Council could elect to endorse some or all the calls to action as outlined in the "Open
Letter to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter,
Minister of State for lnfrastructure and Transit."
CONCLUSION:
Council must consider which position and approach to support on the issue of Metro Vancouver
HandyDART service delivery based on the information presented and whether further exploration
of the issue is warranted.
Øûæ-
Preparedby: KaterinaAnastasiodis
Manager mental Affairs
Approvol and
Concurrence:
Scott Hartman
Chief Administrative Officer
Attachments:
(A) Open Letter to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and lnfrastructure; and Dan Coulter,
Minister of State for lnfrastructure and Transit
(B) "Access for Everyone? Publicly Operated HandyDART in Metro Vancouver" Position Paper
Doc #3783519 Page 2 of 2
Open Letter to Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure; and Dan Coulter, Minister of State for Infrastructure and Transit
Re: Insourcing HandyDART
Dear Minister Fleming and Minister Coulter,
We are an alliance of unions, disability advocates, and other groups who are writing to you out
of concern for the worsening crisis transpiring at Metro Vancouver’s HandyDART system.
HandyDART is crucial infrastructure for some of Metro Vancouver’s most vulnerable populations, but for years now it has been unable to provide adequate service levels that meet demand. A recent report1 found that last year, TransLink provided just half the service per senior
as it had in 2008. This failure means that every day, riders are stranded without any safe, reliable
means of getting to kidney dialysis appointments, cancer treatments, adult daycare facilities, and other essential services. It also means social isolation for many HandyDART riders.
The primary reason why TransLink is unable to provide adequate HandyDART service is not
budget shortfall, but because the various private contractors that have operated HandyDART
over the last several years have all been unable to attract and retain enough staff to do the work properly. The solution to this crisis is not to find yet another private contractor to come in and prioritize its bottom line over service quality—rather, we are advocating for HandyDART to be brought in house as a subsidiary of TransLink.
Although riders and workers have pushed for insourcing HandyDART for years, TransLink has leaned into its contracting model by using private taxi cabs to provide HandyDART service. In the last quarter of 2023, 25% of HandyDART service was performed by taxis, which is up from 23% earlier in 2023 and far exceeds TransLink’s previous commitment to limit taxi trips to 7%
of service.
TransLink has repeatedly reneged on such promises. In 2016, TransLink’s CEO at the time committed to conduct a Public Sector Comparator containing a multiple accounts evaluation that would take rider and worker input into account while comparing the costs and benefits of
continued outsourcing to insourcing at HandyDART. Instead, TransLink hired a privatisation-
friendly corporate consulting firm to conduct a strictly financial analysis which not only ignored considerations of safety and service quality, but also lacked any transparency in its methodology and authorship.
Outsourcing this essential public service to private contractors such as First Transit (now
Transdev) and subcontractors in the form of various taxi companies has resulted in chaotic mismanagement and lowered safety standards in addition to labour shortage. Although in years past TransLink has spoken to these issues in its strategic plans, no aspect of this worsening crisis was addressed in Transport 2050. In fact, the terms ‘HandyDART’, ‘custom transit’, and
‘paratransit’ are completely absent from the Transport 2050 executive summary.
1 https://ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Access-for-Everyone-Final-2023-03-20.pdf
Attachment A
Transport 2050 is yet another demonstration of how as a contracted service, HandyDART is deprioritized and TransLink can essentially wash its hands of these problems. We are calling on the Province to prevent the continued hollowing-out of this vital public service.
We are writing to you because, in the words of Minister Heyman in his introduction to Transport
2050, the provincial government has been a “proud senior partner in developing Transport 2050 since its inception.” TransLink receives provincial funding, has a legislated responsibility to consider provincial policy priorities, and has had its decision-making structure shaped by provincial legislation. We will no longer accept broken commitments and finger-pointing among
various levels of government. Ultimately, the buck stops at the Provincial government, which is
why we are asking you to support this initiative to bring HandyDART in-house.
We call on you to take your role as senior partner seriously, and immediately direct the TransLink Board to:
1.Fulfill TransLink’s original pledge to limit the percentage of taxi trips to 7% or lower of
total HandyDART trips.
2.Develop and conduct an unbiased Public Sector Comparator (PSC) with a multiple
accounts evaluation containing rider and worker input, to compare insourcing tocontinued outsourcing while taking into account safety and service quality.
3.Develop and implement a plan to bring HandyDART in-house as a subsidiary ofTransLink, including providing provincial and federal funds for permanent facilities foran expanded and electric HandyDART fleet.
Sincerely,
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724
BC Federation of Union Retirees (BC FORUM)
BC Federation of Labour
Burnaby City Council
Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of BC (COSCO)
Council of Canadians - Vancouver
CUPE BC Disability Alliance BC
Langley City Council
Langley Human Dignity Coalition
Langley Seniors in Action
Mayor Brad West, Port Coquitlam
Mayor Mike Hurley, Burnaby
Mayor Nathan Pachal, Langley City
Mayor Patrick Johnstone, City of New Westminster
New Westminster & District Labour Council
Richmond Poverty Reduction Coalition
Sunshine Coast Labour Council
Vancouver District Labour Council
Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators’ Society Local 39-1 (BCTF)
Access for Everyone?
Publicly Operated HandyDART
In Metro Vancouver
March 2023
By Eric Doherty – Ecopath Planning
www.ecoplanning.ca
For Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724
Attachment B
2
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Access for Everyone?
ServiceAbout the Author
Eric Doherty is the principal of Ecopath Planning. His consulting practice focuses on
improving community resiliency and livability, including for people with disabilities, while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. His education
includes an MA from the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, where he
specialized in transportation planning. Examples of his other projects are available at
www.ecoplanning.ca
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724
ATU Local 1724 represents the workers in the Greater Vancouver regional area with the
paratransit service known as HandyDART. We are the operators, office workers, mechanics
and road supervisors that serve the elderly and those with special needs. More information
is available at www.atu1724.com
Cover photo – TransLink - https://buzzer.translink.ca/2021/03/translink-launches-
handydart-modernization-program/
Photographs by Eric Doherty except as noted
Updated in Sept 2023 to correct an error in Figure 4 and associated text
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Access for Everyone?
Service
Contents
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 4
1) Introduction & context .................................................................................................... 10
The promise of Transport 2050 – Access for Everyone ...................................................... 10
Provincial and regional district responsibility ..................................................................... 11
2) Aging population, growing HandyDART demand, and human rights ................................ 12
TransLink acknowledged HandyDART crisis in 2017, but not in Transport 2050 ............... 15
Legislature committee recommends more HandyDART .................................................... 17
COVID has created more need for HandyDART .................................................................. 17
Indigenous peoples and disability ....................................................................................... 18
3) Public HandyDART essential for increasing and improving service ................................ 19
The public solution .............................................................................................................. 21
Proper public sector comparator needed ........................................................................... 24
4) Electrification of HandyDART requires permanent facilities .............................................. 25
5) Multiple Benefits of Quality HandyDART ........................................................................... 26
6) Access for Everyone – sidewalks, bus lanes, rolling & more .............................................. 28
7) Reallocating investment to meet Transport 2050 goals .................................................... 30
The transportation planning and advocacy gap ................................................................. 30
8) Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 32
Appendix - History of the HandyDART crisis ........................................................................... 35
HandyDART Riders’ Alliance creates pressure for increased service ................................. 36
Public sector comparator promised & canceled ................................................................. 37
TransLink acknowledges HandyDART crisis ........................................................................ 39
NDP promises action – Human Rights complaint ............................................................... 40
Move to replace HandyDART service with taxis ................................................................. 41
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Access for Everyone?
Service Summary
In early 2022 The TransLink Mayors’ Council and Board of Directors adopted Transport
2050, which aims to create a “fairer and more just and inclusive transportation system that
truly delivers on the promise of Access for Everyone.” TransLink admits that in “the past,
transportation justice has not been central to our regional mission and so, as a region, we
have catching up to do.”
However, not only does Transport 2050 mostly ignore the challenge of population aging it
also makes HandyDART riders almost invisible. HandyDART (and associated terms like
paratransit and custom transit) are barely mentioned.
This is not only a TransLink responsibility. The minister responsible for TransLink states that
the provincial government has been a “partner in developing Transport 2050 since its
inception.” TransLink is a creation of the provincial government, receives provincial funding,
and has a legislated responsibility to consider all relevant provincial objectives including
those regarding HandyDART provision.
The rates of disability for British Columbia range from 13% for the 15 to 24 age group to
51% for people 75 and over. This year the oldest people in the baby boom generation turn
78, and in the coming decade providing the services and urban environment older seniors
need will be a defining social and political challenge in Metro Vancouver and across the
country.
HandyDART service per senior was dropping even before pandemic
The number of HandyDART trips per person 65 and over declined significantly between
2011 and 2019, as shown in the graph above. In 2019, before the COVID pandemic,
TransLink provided twenty two percent less HandyDART service per person 65 and over
-
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
HandyDART Trips per person 65 and over -Metro
Vancouver
5
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Access for Everyone?
Service than in 2008. In 2022, with demand again outstripping supply as pandemic restrictions
eased, TransLink provided 1.99 trips per senior, only half the HandyDART service per person
65 and over than in 2008.
In 2022 the percentage of taxi trips also reached 17%, reflecting the inability of the private
contractor to attract, train, and retain workers in a tight labour market. This also seems to
reflect a disregard for targets set in TransLink plans – the previous TransLink 10 Year Plan
called for reducing the percentage of taxi trips to 7% by 2021.
Taxi usage has climbed to 17%, despite TransLink’s target of 7% by 2021
Experience in Metro Vancouver and elsewhere shows that substituting taxis for dedicated
custom transit vehicles results in sub-standard safety and service, often without any real
reduction in costs.
In 2017 the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation noted that TransLink’s 2017 “10-
Year Vision . . . will still leave Metro Vancouver with about half of the accessible transit trips
per capita that are provided in other similar Canadian cities, including the Capital Region.”
The same report states that HandyDART service “expansion in the Mayors’ Vision is
expected to address the increased demand to some degree, but analysis shows that it is
likely insufficient to catch up or keep pace with need.”
The Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services budget
consultation reports have also recommended “increasing accessible transportation options
such as HandyDART” (or similar wording) for several years running.
Disabilities caused by COVID-19 will increase the need for HandyDART service, and other
mobility options for people with disabilities, in both the short and long term. These
disabilities will also reduce the availability of workers able to do the physically and mentally
demanding work of operating a HandyDART vehicle and assisting passengers.
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
2010 2013 2016 2019 2022
Increasing Taxi Use in HandyDART Service
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Access for Everyone?
Service Transport 2050 notes that Indigenous people emphasized the need for “improved
accessibility for people with disabilities and mobility challenges.” However, it does not
recognize that Indigenous people have much higher rates of disability than the general
population. For example, the rate of disability for First Nations women 40 to 54 years old is
45%, more than double the rate for non-Indigenous women the same age as shown below.
The disability rate of First Nations women is more than double
that of non-Indigenous women 40-54 years old
If Access for Everyone is to include Indigenous Peoples, TransLink needs to greatly improve
accessibility for persons with disabilities (including HandyDART service) region wide but
particularly on reserve lands and other areas with high indigenous populations.
Public HandyDART Provision Essential for Increasing and Improving service
The rationale for contracting out transit services has been that as workers have less job
security working for a private contractor, wages will be enough lower to offset the
corporations profit margin and additional administrative
expenses. However, with an aging population and the effects
of the COVID pandemic, transit agencies across North America
are having great difficulty attracting and retaining enough
qualified workers.
Over the last few years, TransLink’s HandyDART operations have been in the hands of four
different corporations. Every time a new contractor takes over, years of efficiency gains are
lost as new management implements new procedures. Employee morale suffers along with
efficiency, quality of service, and workplace health & safety. Stability is crucial for attracting
and retaining qualified workers.
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
Men Women
Disability Rates - 40-54 years old
Non-Indigenous First Nations - Off Reserve
Stability is crucial for
attracting and retaining
qualified workers
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Access for Everyone?
Service Contacting out also means that TransLink staff do not gain the knowledge and experience
they would if involved directly in HandyDART operations. It seems likely that Transport 2050
would not have the glaring gaps it has regarding aging and HandyDART if TransLink staff
were directly involved in providing HandyDART service.
Large for-profit operators have a history of performance issues that affect riders and
consume large amounts of transit agency staff time – including problems related to low
wages and resulting staff turnover. Part of the problem is that it is impractically complex to
align public service with the profit motive in large public transit systems – a contract that
covered all aspects of quality service would be enormously complex and difficult to enforce.
Multiple disability rights organizations have supported in-house HandyDART service as a
way to improve staff retention, on the basis that experienced operators provide better and
more sensitive service.
The intractable problems with contracting out custom transit services, and the recognition
of the benefits of living wages and decent working conditions, have resulted in a number of
jurisdictions directly providing paratransit as a public service. The Regional District of
Nanaimo, City of Nelson, District of Powell River and the Sunshine Coast Regional District all
chose to provide BC Transit HandyDART and conventional transit directly as a public service
rather than pay a multinational corporation to do so.
The BC government’s recent decision that about 5,000 health care workers should be “once
again directly employed by the government and health authorities” was based on the
evidence that “employees who feel secure and safe in their jobs provide higher-quality care
for people, and in turn employers can attract and retain staff at a higher and more
consistent level.”
Proper public sector comparator needed
At this point, it is essential that TransLink conduct a proper and unbiased Public Sector
Comparator (PSC) to compare the costs and benefits of continued outsourcing to insourcing
of HandyDART. TransLink committed to do a multiple accounts evaluation PSC in 2016, but
then reneged on this commitment.
HandyDART riders should be involved in selecting the criteria to be considered. And the
union representing HandyDART workers should be involved in selecting the company to do
the work, and have input into the design of the PSC. The full PSC, not just a summary,
should be made public.
8
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Access for Everyone?
Service Electrification of HandyDART requires permanent facilities
Electric transit vehicles have multiple benefits for riders including quieter smoother
operation, and better air quality inside and outside the vehicle. These benefits are more
important for HandyDART riders, many of whom have conditions exacerbated by pollution,
than for the general public. Transitioning TransLink’s conventional bus fleet to quiet clean
electric power while leaving the HandyDART fleet burning fossil fuels would be
discriminatory and incompatible with the Transport 2050 commitment to equity.
However, it is not practical to electrify TransLink’s HandyDART fleet without permanent,
publicly owned, operations and maintenance centres. All of TransLink’s HandyDART centres
are leased temporary facilities. These, sometimes substandard, temporary facilities are also
a factor in high staff turnover – substandard facilities translate into substandard working
conditions.
It is time for TransLink to do what BC Transit Victoria has already done, and get funding
from the provincial and federal governments for permanent operations centres with
equipment for charging electric HandyDART vehicles. This would shift a significant
proportion of the cost of HandyDART from TransLink’s operating budget to a capital
expense. Capital expenses are eligible for federal and provincial funding, so this could be a
major financial benefit for TransLink.
Multiple benefits of quality HandyDART
There are many benefits to providing good quality transit service that is accessible to all,
and poor quality paratransit is never a good choice. Quantifying the economic and social
benefits of improving HandyDART service are beyond the scope of this study. But, given the
costs and negative social consequences of inadequate service, improving HandyDART
service is a very good investment.
Failing to increase the amount of high-quality door-to-door custom transit service would
impose substantial costs on the public health system and family care givers, as well as
infringing on the rights of the increasing population of people living with disabilities.
Access for Everyone – sidewalks, bus lanes, rolling & more
Improving the conventional transit system, the sidewalk network, and numerous other
features of our communities is essential to creating the “Access for Everyone” that
Transport 2050 claims to aim for. Many, but not all, of these measures are mentioned in
Transport 2050. And there is considerable potential to moderate the increase in
HandyDART service that will be required, with adequate investment and re-allocation of
road space. Some of these changes can also increase the efficiency of HandyDART service.
9
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Access for Everyone?
Service Some of the measures that have the potential to increase accessibility and moderate the
need for HandyDART service increases include:
• Increasing regular transit service frequencies, and using larger buses, to reduce
overcrowding.
• Improving transit priority measures, including transit lanes that can be used by
HandyDART, and equipping HandyDART vehicles to activate transit signal priority.
• Installing accessible public washrooms at major transit transfer points.
• Creating many more high-quality bike and roll routes, and welcoming people riding
power wheelchairs and mobility scooters to use these facilities.
• Building and improving sidewalks and crosswalks region wide. Transit is not
accessible without good quality sidewalks all the way to and from the transit stop.
• Improving bus stops, with more transit shelters with spaces to sit and park
wheelchairs out of the rain.
• Locating affordable housing, including for seniors and people with disabilities, in
walkable areas with good quality transit.
Even with all these measures, a large increase in HandyDART service still will be needed.
Reallocating investment to meet Transport 2050 goals
The provincial government has set a target of reducing light duty vehicle kilometres
traveled 25% by 2030, and is making action to meet this target central to the forthcoming
BC Clean Transportation Action Plan. And it makes no sense to spend billions widening
highways if your objective is to have much less traffic in the future.
Funding should be shifted away from highway expansion,
which makes traffic worse and increases greenhouse gas
pollution, to public transit infrastructure including
permanent facilities for an expanded and electric
HandyDART fleet.
In 2021 the Capital Regional District (CRD) voted to
advocate for transportation investments that contribute to
meeting regional sustainable transportation, affordability, and greenhouse gas reduction
targets. A similar policy in Metro Vancouver could see billions of dollars shifted to transit
capital projects, including new permanent HandyDART facilities, over the next decade.
Conclusion
TransLink has some catching up to do, and a balanced examination of insourcing
HandyDART should be one of the first steps towards Access for Everyone.
A balanced examination of
insourcing HandyDART
should be one of the first
steps towards Access for
Everyone
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Access for Everyone?
Service 1) Introduction & context
This report documents a compelling case for a HandyDART system in Metro Vancouver that is
publicly operated (rather than being contracted out), has highly prioritized access to the road
network along with transit buses, and is electrified along with the rest of TransLink’s fleet. It is
also crucial that HandyDART service is increased to meet the present need and keep up with
the increasing number of people with disabilities in the region, which is largely linked to our
aging population.
The promise of “Access for Everyone”, set out by TransLink and the Government of BC in
Transport 2050, cannot be met without meeting these conditions.
HandyDART is a custom transit service for people with physical and/or cognitive disabilities
who cannot use the regular transit system for at least some trips. HandyDART is not just for
older seniors. The people who benefit from HandyDART include children on their way to
school and specialized programs, young adults on their way to work and medical
appointments, and middle-aged people going to rehabilitation programs. Any one of us –
even young able-bodied people – could be using these kinds of services next year on a
temporary or permanent basis; however, the probability of needing custom transit service
increases greatly with age.
The promise of Transport 2050 – Access for Everyone
In early 2022 The TransLink Mayors’ Council and Board of Directors adopted Transport
2050, which boldly promises “Access for Everyone”.1 Their message lists key “Challenges
and Opportunities”, which include:
• “the accelerating climate emergency whose destructive impacts we are now clearly
feeling”
• “the affordability crisis leaving many struggling”
• “relationship with Indigenous Peoples”
• “recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic”
Notably absent from this list of challenges, and Transport 2050 as a whole, is Metro
Vancouver’s aging population. Population aging translates to a higher number of people
with disabilities (as discussed in section 2 below).
The Mayors’ Council and Board states that “each of these challenges also present us with an
opportunity to do better — to become the just, equitable, inclusive, and carbon-free region
we aspire to be.” P4
1 www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/strategies-plans-and-guidelines/transit-and-transportation-
planning/transport-2050
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Access for Everyone?
Service By ignoring the challenges of our aging population, Transport 2050 repeats the mistakes of
the past, at the same time as promising to change and do better in the future:
“The transportation future we want is one where no one gets left behind.
To create this fairer and more just and inclusive transportation system that truly
delivers on the promise of Access for Everyone, we need to take steps to help lessen
the struggles and reduce the barriers that people face. In the past, transportation
justice has not been central to our regional mission and so, as a region, we have
catching up to do.” P 19
Not only does Transport 2050 mostly ignore the challenge of population aging it also makes
HandyDART riders almost invisible. HandyDART (and associated terms like paratransit and
custom transit are barely mentioned). The one HandyDART shown in the whole document is
far in the background, behind a skateboarder. Making the most vulnerable transit riders
invisible is a serious flaw in a document that is supposed to guide transportation in Metro
Vancouver in the next crucial decade and beyond. TransLink has some serious “catching up
to do.”
Provincial and regional district responsibility
Transport 2050 also promises to break down the conflicting silos that have led to so many
contradictory policies, and so much finger pointing between levels of government, in the
past. It includes a letter from George Heyman, then Minister Responsible for TransLink,
claiming that the provincial government has been a “partner in developing Transport 2050
since its inception” and that they are “supportive of the steps Transport 2050 takes towards
advancing reconciliation and social equity to make it easier for everyone to travel around
the region and access opportunities” (p 5).
Similar promises have been made it the past, but there are some indications that the
provincial government may be making a real change of direction. The upcoming Clean
Transportation Action plan is one example of the potential for positive change at the
provincial level.
It is helpful to recognize that TransLink is a creation of the provincial government, receives
provincial funding, and has a legislated responsibility to consider all relevant provincial
objectives including those regarding paratransit (HandyDART) provision.
Transport 2050 notes that the “South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Act
requires TransLink to “consider regional land use objectives, provincial transportation and
economic objectives, and provincial and regional environmental and emissions reduction
objectives.” P 35
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Access for Everyone?
Service 2) Aging population, growing HandyDART demand, and human
rights
In 2017 the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation
released a backgrounder titled HandyDART: A Backbone
of Provincial Healthcare, which notes that TransLink’s
2017 “10-Year Vision . . . will still leave Metro Vancouver
with about half of the accessible transit trips per capita
that are provided in other similar Canadian cities,
including the Capital Region.”2
In the same year, Statistics Canada was conducting the
most recent Canadian Survey on Disability. The rates of disability for British Columbia,
ranging from 13% for the 15 to 24 age group to 51% for people 75 and over, are shown in
Figure 1 below.
Figure 1 – Disability increases with age, particularly past age 70
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability3
The 2021 census revealed important information on Canada’s aging population. The
Canadian Press reported that “seniors over the age of 85 are the fastest-growing age group
in the country, marking another milestone on the slow march to what experts warn will be
a crisis in care for the country’s elders. . .. The pace of aging is expected to accelerate with
every new candle added to the boomer generation’s birthday cake.”4
2 ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Mayors-Council-HandyDART-backgrounder-April-2017.pdf
3 www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2019035-eng.htm
4 www.timescolonist.com/national-news/2021-census-shows-number-of-seniors-over-85-expected-to-triple-in-
next-25-years-5303975
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
15-24 25-44 45-64 65-74 75+
Disability rate in British Columbia by age groups
“Providing the services
and urban environment
older seniors need will be
a defining social and
political challenge”
13
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Access for Everyone?
Service This year the oldest people in the baby boom generation turn 78, and in the coming decade
providing the services and urban environment older seniors need will be a defining social
and political challenge in Metro Vancouver and across the country. Figure 2, the Statistics
Canada age ‘pyramids’ (which become less and less pyramid shaped over time) below
illustrate the scale of change over the past two decades and the coming one.
Figure 2 – Age ‘pyramids’ show impact of Baby Boom generation aging 2003 - 2033
Source: www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/dv-vd/pyramid/index-en.htm
The boomer generation is generally healthier and more active than previous generations,
but disability increases sharply after age 70. A key question is how to provide the needed
services so a larger proportion of older seniors can live independently, and transportation is
a key and often neglected component of that.
The Canadian Press notes that “Wait-lists for long-term care beds can already stretch on for
years, leaving people stuck in hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go, or
families struggling to care for their loved ones at home.” But the boomer generation had
fewer children than previous generations, so a larger proportion don’t have family to
provide care such as driving them to medical appointments and social activities. In addition,
a significant proportion of the children of boomers don’t own cars or have driver’s licences.
Meeting the “Access for Everyone” aspiration of Transport 2050 means that people with
disabilities of any age should not have to have family who can drive them in order to live
well.
More HandyDART service can reduce long-term care and hospital stay expenses. The BC
Seniors Advocate states “On average, a long-term care bed costs taxpayers $27,740 more
per year than two hours of daily home support.”5 Good paratransit service is one of the
crucial supports that allows people to live independently.
5 www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca/osa-reports/report-home-support-review/
14
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Access for Everyone?
Service During the pandemic, substandard privatized long-term care cost lives and drove the
societal recognition that public and non-profit provision of services to vulnerable
populations is superior to what for-profit corporations provide.
TransLink held the number of HandyDART trips per capita
approximately constant over the last decade, until the COVID-19
pandemic. However, the number of HandyDART trips per person
65 and over declined significantly between 2011 and 2019 as
shown in Figure 3 below. In 2011 TransLink was providing 3.87
trips per year for every person 65 and over (down from 4.07 in
2008). By 2013, when the crisis of HandyDART service was
documented in the report Metro Vancouver’s Aging Population
and the Need for Improved HandyDART Service, and widely
reported in the media, the level had dropped to 3.45.6 From 2017
to 2019 the levels ranged from 3.12 to 3.19 trips per person 65 and over.
In 2019, before the COVID pandemic, TransLink provided twenty two percent less
HandyDART service per person 65 and over than in 2008. In 2022, with demand again
outstripping supply as pandemic restrictions eased, TransLink provided 1.99 trips per senior,
only half the HandyDART service per person 65 and over than in 2008.
Figure 3 - HandyDART service per senior was dropping even before pandemic
Data Sources: TransLink Data & Statistics Canada. Table 17-10-0135-01 Population estimates7
6 ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ATU-HandyDART-Report-Final-Nov-15-2013.pdf;
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/handydart-trip-denials-up-670-since-2008-says-group-1.2433056
7 January 2023 www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710013501
-
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
4.50
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
HandyDART Trips per person 65 and over -Metro Vancouver
The number of
people with
disabilities will
increase at
almost twice the
rate of population
growth
15
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Access for Everyone?
Service In 2022 the percentage of taxi trips also reached 17%, reflecting the inability of the private
contractor to attract, train, and retain workers in a tight labour market. This also seems to
reflect a disregard for targets set in TransLink plans – the previous TransLink 10 Year Plan
called for reducing the percentage of taxi trips to 7% by 2021.
Figure 4 Taxi usage has climbed to 17%, despite TransLink’s target of 7% by 20218
Source: TransLink data
Experience in Metro Vancouver and elsewhere shows that substituting taxis for dedicated
custom transit vehicles results in sub-standard safety and service, often without any real
reduction in costs. The low pay and resulting high turnover in the taxi industry creates
intractable problems. These serious issues with taxis in HandyDART service are discussed in
the Appendix, and in more detail in the 2017 report Metro Vancouver’s Aging Population
and the need for Quality HandyDART Service.9
According to Human Resources and Skill Development Canada, due to an aging population,
the number of people with disabilities in Canada will increase at almost twice the rate of
population growth through 2036.10 Metro Vancouver has many of the specialized medical
facilities in British Columbia, such as the G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre. Many with
severe disabilities and serious medical conditions – particularly older people – will likely
relocate here to access specialized healthcare in the coming years.
TransLink acknowledged HandyDART crisis in 2017, but not in Transport
2050
In March 2017 TransLink published documents revealing that TransLink provides less
HandyDART service per capita than comparable transit agencies. One document states:
8 2022 data updated to correct an error in the original version of this report.
9 ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Quality-HandyDART-Final-Oct-16-2017.pdf
10 HRDC (2011) Federal Disability Report Figure 1.9.
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
2010 2013 2016 2019 2022
Increasing Taxi Use in HandyDART Service
16
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Access for Everyone?
Service Demand for HandyDART Currently Outstrips Supply and is Anticipated to Grow: Up
until late 2016, there had been no increase in HandyDART service since 2009 . . . we
heard from many customers that it can be difficult to get a trip when needed and
that many customers have stopped calling out of frustration. In addition,
HandyDART is currently providing fewer trips per capita than our peer custom transit
agencies, which indicates that there is likely latent demand for the service.
Furthermore, recent BC Stats projections indicate the number of people in Metro
Vancouver aged 70 or older will increase by 55% over the next ten years, which
could translate into a greater need for HandyDART service,
as the incidence of disabilities increases at this age.
The same report states that HandyDART service “expansion in the
Mayors’ Vision is expected to address the increased demand to
some degree, but analysis shows that it is likely insufficient to
catch up or keep pace with need.”11
The next month, the Mayors’ Council chimed in with this
statement:
“The 10-Year Vision will increase this service by 30% [but]
will still leave Metro Vancouver with about half of the accessible transit trips per
capita that are provided in other similar Canadian cities, including the Capital Region.
This service shortfall is in large part a reflection of the lack of provincial support for
this service. . .
The Mayors’ Council is calling on all B.C. political parties to . . . commit to improving
service above and beyond the 30% increase proposed in the 10-Year Vision, so our
residents have access services at a level comparable to other major Canadian cities.12
Unfortunately, there is no real acknowledgement of
the need for increased HandyDART service in
Transport 2050. The terms “HandyDART”, “custom
transit” and “paratransit” are completely absent from
the Transport 2050 executive summary. Transport
2050 does discuss the impacts of our aging
population, stating “As our population ages, seniors
transitioning away from driving — and encountering new accessibility challenges — will
require more safe and comfortable choices, particularly as more people ‘age in place’.”
11 Custom Transit Service Delivery Review: Outcomes and Recommendations (March 22, 2017)
handydartriders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HandyDART-Service-Review-March-2017.pdf
12 mayorscouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Backgrounder-HandyDART-1.pdf
TransLink provided twenty
two percent less HandyDART
service per person 65 and
over in 2019 than in 2008.
The 10-Year
Vision would still
leave Metro
Vancouver with
half the service
provided in
similar Canadian
cities
17
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Access for Everyone?
Service However, this passage is found on page 161 and is not followed up with any substantive
discussion of the need for improved HandyDART service.
Transport 2050 could be a step backwards, not forward, in TransLink’s journey towards
providing “Access for Everyone”.
Legislature committee recommends more HandyDART
The Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services BC
Budget consultation reports have recommended “increasing accessible transportation
options such as HandyDART” (or similar wording) for several years running including 2023.13
A large and rapid increase in HandyDART service is needed to restore service to pre-COVID
levels and reverse this reduction in service relative to need.
Adequate HandyDART service is essential for many seniors and people with disability to live
independently rather than going into long-term care, and the ongoing COVID pandemic will
add to the need.
COVID has created more need for HandyDART
A significant, but not yet well documented, percentage of the Canadian population has
been disabled by COVID-19 already. Some of these disabilities will be permanent, and some
will last for years. Those affected include all age groups including children, younger working
age people, and seniors who were healthy and active before contracting COVID.14
Disabilities caused by COVID-19 will increase the need for HandyDART service, and other
mobility options for people with disabilities, in both the short and long term. These
disabilities will also reduce the availability of workers able to do the physically and mentally
demanding work of operating a HandyDART vehicle and assisting passengers.
The ongoing COVID pandemic is having severe impacts on older seniors and people with
disabilities.15 The federal COVID-19 Disability Advisory Group Report documented access
related harms including “social isolation and loss of access to supports [and] loss of access
to services crucial to well-being, including occupational therapy, mental health services, and
maintenance/repairs of disability aids.”16 Improved HandyDART service is one way of
reducing this ongoing harm.
13 Quote is from p96 of Budget 2022 report -
www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/finances/budget/consultations
14 E.g. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-tsunami-of-disability-is-coming-as-a-result-of-lsquo-long-covid-
rsquo/; www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2022/mar/30/long-covid-coronavirus-covid-pandemic-
health; www.webmd.com/covid/news/20230306/long-covid-takes-toll-on-health-care-system
15 thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/03/30/Stop-Leaving-Disabled-People-Behind/
16 www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/disability-advisory-group/reports/2020-
advisory-group-report.html#h2.03
18
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Access for Everyone?
Service Indigenous peoples and disability
Transport 2050 notes that Indigenous people emphasized the need for “improved
accessibility for people with disabilities and mobility challenges” in the consultation phase.
However, crucial context is missing from Transport 2050.
The British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS) asserts that the
“Indigenous population of Canada experience a disability rate much higher than that of the
general population, at approximately 30% to 35%”.17 This is backed up by Statistics Canada,
which produced a study of disability rates of Indigenous peoples in Canada for the first time
in 2019.18 For example, the rate of disability for First Nations women 40 to 54 years old is
45%, more than double the rate for non-Indigenous women the same age as shown in
Figure 5 below. 19
Figure 5. The disability rate of First Nations women is more than double that of non-
Indigenous women 40-54 years old
Source: Statistics Canada - Indigenous people with disabilities in Canada (2019).
In this study Statistics Canada states that
“In Canada, disability is defined using the social model of disability, which takes into
account not just a person’s impairments or task difficulties, but also the added
impact of environmental barriers to create disability. These environmental barriers
can be. . . attitudinal resulting in discrimination and exclusion.”
By this definition, inadequate transit service (particularly HandyDART service) increases
disability rates among Indigenous people and the general population rather than merely
worsening conditions for persons with disabilities.
17 www.bcands.bc.ca/
18 www.straight.com/news/1336741/statistics-canada-reports-high-rates-disability-among-inuit-metis-and-
reserve-first;
19 P3 www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/89-653-x/89-653-x2019005-eng.pdf?st=OX64TB2s
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
Men Women
Disability Rates - 40-54 years old
Non-Indigenous First Nations - Off Reserve
19
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Access for Everyone?
Service
TransLink 2050 states that:
“Indigenous communities were purposefully isolated from society, causing
marginalization, economic disparity, and impacts on the health and safety of
Indigenous Peoples. TransLink collectively acknowledges that past decisions have
shaped our region’s current transportation system, including access and mobility
options being unavailable for many Indigenous communities” P 10.
These health impacts combined with the lack of “access and mobility options” translate to
elevated disability rates. If Access for Everyone is to include Indigenous Peoples, TransLink
needs to greatly improve accessibility for persons with disabilities (including HandyDART
service) region wide but particularly on reserve lands and other areas with high indigenous
populations.
3) Public HandyDART essential for increasing and improving
service
The rationale for contracting out transit services has been that as workers have less job
security working for a private contractor, wages will be enough lower to offset the
corporations profit margin and additional administrative expenses. However, with an aging
population and the effects of the COVID pandemic, transit agencies across North America
are having great difficulty attracting and retaining enough qualified workers.
Decent wages, working conditions and future prospects are now essential for attracting
enough workers to maintain, never mind increase, service. And TransLink is failing to attract
and retain workers to their HandyDART service.
Over the last few years, TransLink’s HandyDART operations have been in the hands of four
different corporations. TransLink terminated their contract US based MV Transportation
group (MVT Canadian Bus) and entered into a contract with UK-based FirstGroup in 2017.
This transfer was controlled by TransLink, but nevertheless caused considerable disruption.
However, in 2021, EQT AB of Sweden bought out FirstGroup’s North American operations
and subsequently separated the transit and school bus operations. In 2022 EQT sold the
division that operates HandyDART for TransLink to Transdev, which is headquartered in
France. TransLink had no control over these two transfers between multinational
corporations.
Every time a new contractor takes over, years of efficiency gains are lost as new
management implements new procedures. Employee morale suffers along with efficiency,
quality of service, and workplace health & safety.
20
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Access for Everyone?
Service The cost of HandyDART is inflated due to the funding of profit and the cost of administering
contracted out services meanwhile creating instability that conventional transit is not
burdened by. Stability is crucial for attracting and retaining qualified workers and there is
presently a nearly unprecedented shortage of qualified workers.
Contacting out also means that TransLink staff do not gain the knowledge and experience
they would if involved directly in HandyDART operations. It seems likely that Transport 2050
would not have the glaring gaps it has regarding aging and HandyDART if TransLink staff
were directly involved in providing HandyDART service.
The original shift of all TransLink HandyDART services from mainly non-profit contractors to
the series of for profit corporations had decidedly mixed results. The consolidation to one
contract reduced some of the previous problems with trips between zones served by
different contractors. However, other problems emerged with service quality and
efficiency. The 2012 TransLink Commissioner’s
report states:
“The consolidation of operations to one
contractor does not appear to have produced any
economies of scale. Instead, slippage has
occurred in service cost efficiency and
effectiveness, as well as productivity.”20
The privatization of
HandyDART services also
had a negative impact on HandyDART riders, including poor service
and a strike largely resulting from MVT’s attempt to eliminate
pensions for workers.21
Privatization in conventional public transit service has a poor track
record – most notably the disastrous experience from the UK,
including the London Underground ‘public private partnership’
which cost the public billions and went bankrupt in 2007.22 The
problems with trying to create and enforce contracts that create
financial incentives for providing good service have proven to be immense, and the failures
20 Shirocca Consulting (2012) TransLink Efficiency Review. P 42.
21 Matthew Burrows (Nov 25, 2009) Georgia Straight “HandyDart strike leaves disabled passengers out in the cold”
22 E.g. Todd Litman (2011) Contrasting Visions of Urban Transport - Critique of “Fixing Transit: The Case For
Privatization” Victoria Transport Policy Institute vtpi.org/cont_vis.pdf; CUPE (2008) Metronet P3 failure
‘spectacular’; Centre for Civic Governance (2016) Back in House: Why local governments are bringing services
home. columbiainstitute.eco/research/our-latest-publication-is-out-back-in-house-workbook-why-local-
governments-are-bringing-services-home/
A contract that
covered all
aspects of quality
service would be
enormously
complex and
difficult to
enforce
HANDYDART RIDER SPEAKS TO MEDIA
21
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Access for Everyone?
Service have been extremely costly both in terms of financial cost and the impact of poor transit
service on individuals and society.
In the conventional transit sector large for-profit operators have a history of performance
issues that affect riders and consume large amounts of transit agency staff time – including
problems related to low wages and resulting staff turnover. As one former public sector
manager with experience with contracting out put it:
“If you had a contractor that wanted to run the business and not maximize their
profit at every turn, then it would be fine . . . As it tends to work out, you’re
spending 85 percent of the time making sure that they’re doing everything in the
contract instead of doing the things you need to be doing”23
The idea that the poor treatment of employees and poor service
to riders goes hand in hand is illustrated by the fact that some full
time paratransit drivers in the US have to rely on food stamps to
feed their children. For example, speaking at an event organized
by the Washington Interfaith Network (an affiliate of the Metro
Vancouver Alliance) Karen Reed spoke about how her and her
daughter rely on social services and were homeless for three
months despite her working far more than full time hours for First
Transit.24 Corporations that pay substandard wages and impose miserable working
conditions when they can get away with it cannot be expected to treat vulnerable riders
with any more consideration.
Private Contracts Impractically Complex
In the book A Very Public Solution the late Australian transportation planning professor Paul
Mees put forward a compelling and well documented case that for-profit companies should
not be involved in coordinating and planning functions in conventional public transit. Mees
explains that it is impractically complex to align public service with the profit motive in large
public transit systems.25 The same argument applies to custom transit – a contract that
covered all aspects of quality service would be enormously complex and difficult to enforce.
The public solution
In 2005 the Coalition of HandyDART Users (CHU) published a report calling for HandyDART
to be operated as a subsidiary of TransLink rather than being contracted out. One of the
23 Zusha Elinson (March 9, 2013) “MV Transportation woes go beyond Tahoe” Lake Tahoe News.
laketahoenews.net/2013/03/mv-transportation-woes-go-beyond-tahoe
24 Video by ATU Local 689 (Jan 10, 2015) Metro Access Operator Karen Reed tells Mayor Bowser of Perils of
Outsourcing Buses in the District. https://youtu.be/NybfVVvtwaA
25 (2000) A very public solution: Transport in the dispersed city. Melbourne University Press.
Poor treatment of
employees and
poor service to
riders goes hand
in hand
22
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Access for Everyone?
Service main justifications for this proposed change was to improve staff retention, as they believed
that experienced operators provide better and more sensitive service:
“The two things that handyDART users care about the most are:
1) expanding the availability and flexibility of rides, and
2) a safe and professional service with well-trained drivers.
Custom transit employees are the people we interact with every day. Drivers have a
job that is very distinct from that of conventional bus drivers, including:
• Experience, training and sensitivity with a range of disabilities, conditions
and impairments.
• Provision of a door-to-door service.
• Planning custom routes.
• Safety and securement of passengers.
• One-on-one attention for passengers.
For those of us using handyDART, the employees we most appreciate are those with
experience and sensitivity. These are qualities and abilities that drivers develop
through serving customers with a variety of needs over time. This is why it is CHU’s
position that longevity and training of employees is crucial to a safe, quality service
for us – and why we are proposing a permanent subsidiary. The instability of the
current contracting process undermines staff longevity.”26
Custom transit drivers facing substandard pay and working conditions quit as soon as they
find better jobs, and the only way to overcome this is to improve wages, benefits and
working conditions. A TRB report asserts that the “difficulty in hiring, training, and retaining
qualified paratransit drivers will continue to be a problem in the paratransit industry until
the industry finds a way to compensate quality drivers.”27
Given the poor track record that for-profit companies have for service quality and cost
effectiveness, CHU’s recommendation that HandyDART be operated as a publicly owned
subsidiary of TransLink should be seriously considered.
As Washington D.C.-area disability rights advocate Carol Tyson said at a transit forum in
2015, “the system that encourages privatization and discourages ensuring workers are paid
living wages and benefits is intertwined with the system that denies the supports and
services that people with disabilities need to remain in the community.”28
26 Ann Vrlak (2005) Engaging the Future: Making HandyDART a TransLink Subsidiary. Coalition of handyDART
Users. P 13. handydartriders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Engaging-Future-2005.pdf
27 Roy Lave & Rosemary Mathias (2000) State of the Art of Paratransit. Transportation Research Board. Pp 3-4
28 (Oct 14, 2015) DC Fair Transit Forum https://youtu.be/fVV-rextu_0?t=3m36s
23
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Access for Everyone?
Service Examples of shifts to In-house provision
The intractable problems with contracting out custom transit services, and the recognition
of the benefits of living wages and decent working conditions, have resulted in a number of
jurisdictions directly providing the service as a public service. Some examples include:
• In 2015, Calgary HandiBus was taken over and amalgamated with Access Calgary.
The HandiBus operators become Calgary Transit employees.29
• The City of Ottawa took over the operation of Para Transpo in 2007 after numerous
problems with the service First Bus Canada was providing.30
• After a scathing audit, in 2015 the Alberta municipality of Wood Buffalo (Fort
McMurray) announced it would terminate its 15 year contract with Tok Transit after
only two years and deliver both conventional and Paratransit in-house.31 32According
to one media report “many of the complaints the auditors heard centred around
specialized transit provided to seniors and people with disabilities.”33
• In 2016 the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority took over managing the VTA
Paratransit service directly after the FBI raided the offices of the company operating
their paratransit service, to investigate allegations of over billing.34
These are examples of the “growing international trend” of ‘insourcing’ services that were
previously contracted out. 35 A prime example of the trend is the BC government’s recent
decision that about 5,000 health care workers should be “once again directly employed by
the government and health authorities”.36 A government media release regarding this
insourcing decision states that “Evidence has shown that employees who feel secure and
safe in their jobs provide higher-quality care for people, and in turn employers can attract
and retain staff at a higher and more consistent level.”37
29 City of Calgary (May 6, 2015) Calgary HandiBus employees joining Calgary Transit family
newsroom.calgary.ca/calgary-handibus-employees-joining-calgary-transit-family
30 Hugh Adami (Sept 2, 2013) Ottawa Citizen “For disabled mom, Para Transpo’s a tough call”
ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa%20&%20area/public-citizen-for-disabled-mom-para-transpos-a-tough-call
31 Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (2015) FAQ: New Era For Transit in Wood Buffalo.
32 Centre for Civic Governance (2016) Back in House: Why local governments are bringing services home.
columbiainstitute.eco/research/our-latest-publication-is-out-back-in-house-workbook-why-local-governments-are-
bringing-services-home/
33 Rebekah Benoit (2015) “RMWB commits in-house transit services will be better after terminating contract”
fortmacconnect.ca
34 NBC Bay Area (Nov. 3, 2016) FBI Raids Paratransit Operator Prompting VTA to Scramble to Help Disabled Riders
nbcbayarea.com/news/local/FBI-Raids-Paratransit-Operator-Prompting-VTA-to-Scramble-For-Alternate-Plans-
399884971.html
35 Keith Reynolds, Gaetan Royer and Charley Beresford (21 Sep 2016) Like London and Paris, Sooke BC Is Voting
Privatization Out of Style. thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/09/21/Sooke-Voting-Privatization-Out/
36 thetyee.ca/News/2022/12/20/Health-Workers-Celebrate-After-Bitter-Battle-Rights/
37 Cleaning, dietary workers coming back in-house at B.C. hospitals (Aug 30 2021)
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021HLTH0157-001703
24
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Access for Everyone?
Service The Regional District of Nanaimo, City of Nelson (Regional District of Central Kootenay),
District of Powell River and the Sunshine Coast Regional District all chose to provide BC
Transit HandyDART and conventional transit directly as a public service rather than pay a
multinational corporation to do so.38
Proper public sector comparator needed
At this point, it is essential that TransLink conduct a proper and unbiased Public Sector
Comparator (PSC) to compare the costs and benefits of continued outsourcing to insourcing
of HandyDART.
Corporate consulting firms like PwC and KPMG are highly biased to favor privatization.
Rachel Tansey of the Corporate Europe Observatory refers to them as “Professional
(privatisation of) services firms.”39
In 2015 I recommended that HandyDART riders be involved in selecting an outside group to
conduct a participatory Multiple Accounts Evaluation PSC. I also suggested that public
confidence in the results would be enhanced if the group doing the work was conducted by
a smaller firm and led by professionals with a code of conduct requiring clear and accurate
communications with the public.
In 2016, then TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond committed to a ‘public sector comparator’ to
evaluate the costs and benefits of bringing HandyDART in-house as part of a “Custom
Transit Service Delivery Review . . . in response to a number of questions that had been
raised at TransLink Board meetings, particularity around responsiveness to customer
concerns, and the standards and quality of HandyDART and taxi services, and the
HandyDART service model.” The “Stakeholder Advisory Committee [was supposed to help
develop] evaluation criteria for service delivery models”40
The Custom Transit Service Delivery Review initially included a Multiple Accounts Evaluation
(MAE) of service delivery models. Multiple Accounts Evaluation allows multiple factors, such
as safety and quality of service to be evaluated (TransLink regularly uses MAE evaluations in
evaluating projects such as rapid transit lines).
However, at some stage the MAE was terminated, and only a financial analysis was done.
TransLink hired PwC to do the financial review. PwC is one of the scandal-prone big
international accounting & consulting partnerships “the most secretive of all large global
38 www.bctransit.com/about/funding-and-governance/regional; mypowellrivernow.com/33024/news/service-
provider-change-coming-for-paratransit-and-handydart/
39 corporateeurope.org/en/power-lobbies/2017/06/creeping-privatisation-healthcare
40Custom Transit Service Delivery Review translink.ca/en/Plans-and-Projects/Custom-Transit-Service-Review.aspx
(accessed Sept. 21, 2017).
25
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Access for Everyone?
Service institutions.”41 It is also one of the firms the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
identifies as having “potential conflict of interest, because accurate auditing would
sometimes speak against corporate practices that yield general consulting revenues” such
as contracting out and ‘private public partnerships.’42 The names and qualifications of the
people who did the financial analysis were not included in the thin and vaguely worded
report summary that was released to the public.
PwC was apparently not informed that the MAE had been cancelled and wrote that: “The
outputs from the PSC were incorporated into the final Multiple Account Evaluation (“MAE”)
used by TransLink and the project Stakeholder Advisory Committee to prepare the final
recommendation to the TransLink Board.”[sic] 43
As should be expected, PwC’s report suggested that contracting out would save money,
apparently on the basis that wage rates and benefits would be suppressed compared to in-
house provision.
This time a proper, transparent, Public Sector Comparator is needed. HandyDART riders
should be involved in selecting the criteria to be considered. And the union representing
HandyDART workers should be involved in selecting the company to do the work, and have
input into the design of the PSC. The full PSC, not just a summary, should be made public.
4) Electrification of HandyDART requires permanent facilities
Electric transit vehicles have multiple benefits for riders including quieter smoother
operation, and better air quality inside and outside the vehicle. These benefits are more
important for HandyDART riders, many of whom have conditions exacerbated by pollution,
than for the general public. Transitioning TransLink’s conventional bus fleet to quiet clean
electric power while leaving the HandyDART fleet burning fossil fuels would be
discriminatory and incompatible with the Transport 2050 commitment to equity.
With provincial, federal and regional funds, BC Transit Victoria has built a new permanent
HandyDART centre to “respond to the growing needs for handyDART services in Greater
Victoria [with] infrastructure to support a fully electric fleet… installed during
41 michaelwest.com.au/pwc-scandal-whos-guarding-the-guards-nobody/
42 Stuart Murray (2006) CCPA. Value for Money? Cautionary lessons about P3s from British Columbia. p 32
policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC_Office_Pubs/bc_2006/P3_value_for_money.pdf
43 (March 2017) TransLink Custom Transit Service Delivery Review: Public Sector Comparator Executive Report for
Public Board Meeting. P2 handydartriders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TL-HandyDART-Public-Sector-
Comparator-March-2017.pdf
26
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Access for Everyone?
Service construction”44 In contrast, TransLink has a detailed Low Carbon Fleet Transition Plan that
fails to even mention HandyDART.45
Multiple manufacturers are already taking orders for electric vehicles suitable for
HandyDART use. Many of the present HandyDART vehicles are based on the Ford Transit
chassis, and Ford is already taking orders for the electric Transit chassis. As a major
purchaser of paratransit vehicles and small buses TransLink is well positioned to lead in the
testing of new types of electric vehicles and charging systems rather than passively waiting
as other transit agencies to do so.
However, it is not practical to electrify TransLink’s HandyDART fleet without permanent,
publicly owned, operations and maintenance centres. All of TransLink’s HandyDART centres
are leased temporary facilities. These, sometimes substandard, temporary facilities are also
a factor in high staff turnover – substandard facilities translate into substandard working
conditions and erode staff morale. If HandyDART lags
far behind the rest of the transit system in
electrification, this will also erode morale and make
it harder to attract and retain qualified operators.
It is time for TransLink to do what Victoria has
already done and get funding from the provincial and
federal governments for permanent operations
centres with equipment for charging electric
HandyDART vehicles. This would shift a significant
proportion of the cost of HandyDART from
TransLink’s operating budget (which is largely funded by property taxes and fares) to a
capital expense. Capital expenses (particularly for the electrification of transit) are eligible
for federal and provincial funding, so this could be a major financial benefit for TransLink.
5) Multiple Benefits of Quality HandyDART
There are many benefits to providing good quality transit service that is accessible to all,
and poor quality paratransit is never a good choice. Accessible transit, including
HandyDART, evolved as our society acknowledged the benefits of allowing people with
physical and/or cognitive disabilities to live and participate in society rather than being
physically segregated in institutions or isolated at home.
A report by the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) asserts that even a small
reduction in the barriers to employment and education for people with disabilities would
44 www.bctransit.com/viewroyal/handydart
45 www.translink.ca/news/2020/february/translink%20low%20carbon%20fleet%20strategy; www.translink.ca/-
/media/translink/media-
releases/2021/january/translink_low_carbon_fleet_transition_plan_update_2021_01_18.pdf
Capital expenses
(particularly for the
electrification of transit) are
eligible for federal and
provincial funding, so this
could be a major financial
benefit for TransLink
27
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Access for Everyone?
Service have annual economic benefits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The study also
suggests that reductions in health care costs with improvements to accessible transit would
be substantial.46 There are economic benefits of freeing family care-givers to seek
employment and costs borne by the public health system to forcing people with disabilities
into institutions.
This CUTA report also identifies substantial safety benefits to accessible transit
improvements. People 70 and older get into more crashes per kilometre than any other
group except young males. 47 Without good options, people will be tempted to keep driving
even when their ability to do so safely is impaired.
With an aging population, it will be essential to have high quality
programs, and transportation to these programs, so that older
people with disabilities can fully participate in their communities.
The Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of BC (COSCO)
asserts that “Accessible transportation services are a key
component in helping seniors to stay active, involved and
engaged in their communities.”48 Custom transit services such as
HandyDART are essential for meeting the growing demand not
met by regular transit service.
Quantifying the economic and social benefits of improving
HandyDART service, along with improvements to the rest of the
transit system, are beyond the scope of this study. But, given the
costs and negative social consequences of inadequate service, improving HandyDART
service is a very good investment.
Failing to increase the amount of high-quality door-to-door custom transit service would
impose substantial costs on the public health system and family care givers, as well as
infringing on the rights of the increasing population of people living with disabilities. And
given the shortage of qualified workers, it is impractical to provide the volume and quality of
service needed without insourcing the (presently outsourced) HandyDART service in Metro
Vancouver as discussed in section 2 above.
46 CUTA (2013) Value Case for Accessible Transit in Canada. cutaactu.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2021/01/cutareport_valuecaseforaccessibletransitincanada.pdf
47 Statistics Canada (2011) Profile of seniors’ transportation habits. statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-
x/2012001/article/11619-eng.htm
48 (April 2013) COSCO News. P 10
Accessible
transportation
services are a key
component in
helping seniors to
stay active,
involved and
engaged in their
communities
28
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Access for Everyone?
Service 6) Access for Everyone – sidewalks, bus lanes, rolling & more
It is tempting to think that the answer to providing accessible transportation is simply to
force some of the people who now use HandyDART onto the regular transit system, which
is now equipped with low-floor buses and other features to reduce barriers for people with
disabilities. This approach is exactly the opposite of what Transport 2050 promises
regarding equity, as it would likely result in many of the most vulnerable HandyDART
passengers becoming isolated and unable to access transit.49
Transport 2050 includes a “bold vision to build out an extensive network of transit that is
both fast (competitive with cars) and reliable, travelling in dedicated lanes, free from
congestion” (P 29).If this is done in a way that maximizes the benefits for HandyDART,
including equipping HandyDART vehicles to activate transit signal priority, it could
significantly improve HandyDART cost effectiveness, speed, and reliability.
Improving the conventional transit system, the sidewalk network, and numerous other
features of our communities is essential to creating the “Access for Everyone” that
Transport 2050 claims to aim for. Many, but not all, of these measures are mentioned in
Transport 2050. And there is considerable potential to moderate the increase in
HandyDART service that will be required, with adequate investment and re-allocation of
road space. Some of these changes can also increase the efficiency of HandyDART service.
Some of the measures that have the potential to increase accessibility and moderate the
need for HandyDART service increases include:
• Increasing regular transit service frequencies, and using larger buses, to reduce
overcrowding. Overcrowding makes accessing transit very difficult, and even
dangerous, for many people with disabilities.
• Improving transit priority measures, including
transit lanes (and busways on bus rapid transit
routes) that can be used by HandyDART vehicles
and equipping HandyDART vehicles to activate
transit signal priority.
• Installing accessible public washrooms at rapid
transit stations and major transit transfer points.
• Creating more spaces on buses for wheelchairs,
mobility scooters and baby carriages. Most
buses have only two spaces, and these are often
full on some routes.
49 E.g. www.straight.com/news/jean-swanson-handydart-users-oppose-proposed-application-procedures-sure-to-
reduce-ridership
MOBILITY SCOOTER ON
PROTECTED BIKE & ROLL LANE
29
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Access for Everyone?
Service • Extend the scope of the “walking, cycling, and transit skills training, resources, and
support programs” promised in Transport 2050 to include wheelchairs and mobility
scooters.50
• Creating many more high-quality bike and roll routes, with changes in regulations
and signage to clarify that people riding power wheelchairs and mobility scooters are
permitted and encouraged to use these facilities.51
• Building and improving sidewalks and crosswalks region wide. Transit is not
accessible without good quality sidewalks all the way to and from the transit stop.
One dangerous street crossing can make a trip dangerous and terrifying for a frail
senior with mobility disabilities.
• Improving bus stops, with more transit shelters with spaces to sit and park
wheelchairs out of the rain.
• Making bus stops accessible to wheelchairs. Significant progress has been made in
making bus stops accessible, but many bus stops are still not accessible.
• Clarifying Transport 2050’s ambition regarding making electric bicycles and
micromobility devices affordable for people living on low incomes to explicitly
prioritize mobility scooters and wheelchairs.52
• Locating the services used by people with disabilities, including medical facilities, on
major transit routes. And improving transit service and reliability to existing facilities.
• Locating affordable housing, including for seniors and people with disabilities, in
walkable areas with good quality transit.
Many of these improvements would require cooperation between
multiple levels of government and funding agencies, and
Transport 2050 is a significant step forward in that it proposes
coordinated action led by TransLink.
These changes also involve considerable amounts of money – for
example providing increased transit capacity and building
sidewalks will likely cost billions in capital costs alone. In the case
of transit overcrowding at peak periods, on some routes improved HandyDART service
might be more cost effective than increasing regular service enough to allow reasonable
and reliable access for vulnerable riders.
Other changes, such as concentrating health care facilities and employment in walkable
areas with good quality accessible transit, will realistically happen only over decades and
only with much stronger commitment from governments, including municipalities and the
50 Section 4.2.6. p 183.
51 For current background on the use of wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes see
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/city-council-bike-lane-pilot-1.6218673
52 Transport 2050 messaging regarding wheelchairs and mobility scooters is inconsistent. See sections 3.2.2 and
3.2.4
Bus stops are only
accessible if the
neighbourhood
has good
sidewalks and
crosswalks
30
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Access for Everyone?
Service province. So far, the implementation of regional plans has been inconsistent – making it
more difficult for people with disabilities to get where they need to go.
7) Reallocating investment to meet Transport 2050 goals
People with disabilities tend to have much lower incomes than people who do not. This is
largely related to the barriers to employment they face, resulting in both lower income
during working years and lower retirement income. According to the Disability Without
Poverty Network, about one in five people who reported an activity limitation live in
poverty. Individuals relying on the Persons with Disability benefit live well below the
poverty line – the Statistics Canada Low Income Cut Off.53
People with disabilities living in poverty need affordable transportation. Even regular transit
fares for using HandyDART are a barrier. The half-price taxi saver coupons available from
TransLink are far too expensive for many to use regularly, even for short trips; the social
expectation to tip taxi drivers poses an additional barrier.
People with disabilities face significant barriers in getting to potential employment
locations, given that many cannot drive even if able to purchase and operate a reliable car
or accessible van.
The transportation planning and advocacy gap
One of the acknowledged failures of regional planning in
Metro Vancouver has been the failure to coordinate
transportation and land use planning to concentrate
employment and residential development in transit and
pedestrian friendly areas. For example, the provincial
government took on $4.2 billion in debt for the expansion of
Highway 1 and the Port Mann Bridge. The project was funded
despite being opposed by the Regional District Board on the
basis that it conflicted with regional transit-oriented land use
objectives and would stimulate automobile dependant
residential and commercial land use.
Neither TransLink nor the Metro Vancouver Regional District
have shown real leadership on transportation planning in the region in recent years, instead
allowing the provincial government to proceed with billions of dollars of highway expansion
projects (without even opposing federal funding going to these projects instead of transit
improvements).
53 Disability Without Poverty Network (2012) Overdue: The Case for Increasing the Persons with Disabilities Benefit
in BC. P5.
While employment is
an important issue, so
is the ability to
participate fully in
society. People with
disabilities have a
right to social activity
and to access
recreation facilities
31
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Access for Everyone?
Service As a result of this failure of regional planning, much of the recent employment growth has
been located in automobile-dominated office parks or other locations with poor transit
service and incomplete sidewalk networks. Even young people without disabilities find
accessing these new employment locations by transit and walking a severe challenge. Given
that many older buildings are not wheelchair accessible, this means than many of the
newer accessible worksites are inaccessible without HandyDART – even for the proportion
of people with disabilities who can use regular transit.
While employment is an important issue, so is the ability to participate fully in society.
Lower income people, including people of all ages with disabilities, have a right to social
activity and to access recreation facilities and parks. Restricting HandyDART service, or
imposing higher fares, would further isolate those in deep poverty. Social isolation is
associated with a wide range of negative physical and mental health impacts, so inadequate
HandyDART service translates to increased health care costs and shorter lifespans for some
of the most vulnerable.
In an ideal world Metro Vancouver would rapidly be transitioning to an age-friendly region
with greatly improved access for people with disabilities. But the fact is that people with
disabilities are living and looking for work where many recently developed areas are
inaccessible without an automobile or custom transit. Improved HandyDART service is
essential for overcoming the barriers exacerbated by recent regional planning and
transportation infrastructure decisions.
As discussed above, TransLink is legislatively obligated to consider provincial policy
objectives. The provincial government has set a target of reducing light duty vehicle
kilometres traveled 25% by 2030, and is making action to meet this target central to the
forthcoming BC Clean Transportation Action Plan.54 And it makes no sense to spend billions
widening highways if your objective is to have much less traffic in the future.
The obvious implication is that funding should be shifted
away from highway expansion, which makes traffic worse
and increases greenhouse gas pollution, to public transit
infrastructure including permanent facilities for an
expanded and electric HandyDART fleet.
In 2021 the Capital Regional District (CRD) unanimously approved a groundbreaking new
policy on transportation infrastructure prioritization in the region. Greater Victoria’s
regional district is now prepared to advocate for transportation investments that contribute
to meeting regional sustainable transportation, affordability, and greenhouse gas reduction
54 www.pibc.bc.ca/sites/default/files/internal_pages_pdfs/planning-west/PIBC-PW-Winter2022-CleanBC-
Roadmap-PG22-24-Web.pdf; www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/electricity-alternative-energy/transportation-
energies/clean-transportation-policies-programs/clean-transportation-action-plan
A similar policy in Metro
Vancouver could see
billions of dollars shifted
to transit
32
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Access for Everyone?
Service targets. As a result, the region could see hundreds of millions of provincial and federal
dollars invested in electric rapid bus lines, cycling routes, and sidewalks instead of highway
expansion projects.55
A similar policy in Metro Vancouver could see billions of dollars shifted to transit capital
projects, including new permanent HandyDART facilities, over the next decade. This could
go a long way towards meeting the affordability and equity objectives TransLink set out in
Transport 2050. TransLink is the obvious choice to lead these advocacy efforts.
8) Conclusion
This report:
• Points out that Transport 2050 aims to create a “fairer and more just and inclusive
transportation system that truly delivers on the promise of Access for Everyone” and
admits that TransLink has “catching up to do.”
• Notes that Transport 2050 mostly ignore the challenge of population aging.
• Shows that rates of disability increase greatly with age, that Metro Vancouver’s
population is aging rapidly, and asserts that in the coming decade providing the
services and urban environment older seniors need will be a defining social and
political challenge.
• Documents that the number of HandyDART trips per person 65 and over declined
significantly between 2011 and 2019.
• Shows that 2022 TransLink provided only half the HandyDART service per person 65
and over than in 2008.
• Points out that the percentage of taxi trips also reached 17% in 2022, compared to
TransLink’s target of reducing taxi use to 7% by 2021.
• Documents that substituting taxis for dedicated custom transit vehicles results in
sub-standard safety and service.
• Notes that 2017 TransLink admitted that it provides only “about half of the
accessible transit trips per capita that are provided in other similar Canadian cities”
and that much more service is needed.
• Quotes the Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government
Services recommendation to increase “accessible transportation options such as
HandyDART.”
• Asserts that disabilities caused by COVID-19 will increase the need for HandyDART
service, and reduce the availability of workers able to be HandyDART operators.
• Points out that Indigenous people have much higher rates of disability than the
general population, and asserts that if Access for Everyone is to include Indigenous
55 www.capitaldaily.ca/news/opinion-crd-must-push-province-to-fund-rapid-bus-instead-of-expanding-highways
33
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Access for Everyone?
Service Peoples, TransLink needs to greatly improve accessibility for persons with
disabilities.
• Asserts that public HandyDART provision is essential for increasing and improving
service because:
o The rationale for contracting out transit services was based on contractors’
ability to get away with lower wages and benefits than the public sector.
o With an aging population and the effects of the COVID pandemic, transit
agencies across North America are having great difficulty attracting and
retaining qualified workers.
o Over the last few years, TransLink’s HandyDART operations have been in the
hands of four different corporations. Every time a new contractor takes over,
years of efficiency gains are lost and employee morale suffers along with
efficiency and quality of service.
o Stability is crucial for attracting and retaining qualified workers.
o For-profit operators have a history of performance issues that affect riders
and consume large amounts of transit agency staff time – including problems
related to low wages and resulting staff turnover.
o Multiple disability rights organizations have supported in-house HandyDART
service as a way to improve staff retention, on the basis that experienced
operators provide better and more sensitive service.
• Points out that the BC government’s recent decision that about 5,000 health care
workers should be “once again directly employed by the government and health
authorities” was based on evidence that “employees who feel secure and safe in
their jobs provide higher-quality care for people, and in turn employers can attract
and retain staff at a higher and more consistent level.”
• Notes that TransLink committed to do a multiple accounts evaluation Public Sector
Comparator (PSC) in 2016, but then reneged on this commitment.
• Asserts that TransLink must conduct a proper and unbiased PSC to compare the
costs and benefits of continued outsourcing to insourcing of HandyDART.
• Proposes that HandyDART riders should be involved in selecting the criteria to be
considered. And the union representing HandyDART workers should be involved in
selecting the company to do the work, and have input into the design.
• Asserts that transitioning TransLink’s conventional bus fleet to quiet clean electric
power while leaving the HandyDART fleet burning fossil fuels would be incompatible
with the Transport 2050 commitment to equity.
• Documents that it is not practical to electrify TransLink’s HandyDART fleet without
permanent operations and maintenance centres, and asserts that substandard,
temporary facilities are a factor in high staff turnover.
• Asserts that TransLink should do what BC Transit Victoria has already done, and get
funding from the provincial and federal governments for permanent operations
centres.
34
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Access for Everyone?
Service • Notes that capital expenses are eligible for federal and provincial funding, so
permanent HandyDART centres could be a major financial benefit for TransLink.
• Asserts that failing to improve HandyDART service would impose substantial costs on
the public health system and family care givers, as well as infringing on the rights of
the increasing population of people living with disabilities.
• Proposes improving the conventional transit system, the sidewalk network, and
numerous other features of our communities, as well as improving HandyDART
service, to create the “Access for Everyone” that Transport 2050 claims to aim for.
• Notes that the provincial government has set a target of reducing light duty vehicle
kilometres traveled 25% by 2030, and it makes no sense to spend billions widening
highways if your objective is to have much less traffic in the future.
• Proposes that TransLink should advocate for shifting provincial and federal funding
away from highway expansion, which makes traffic worse and increases greenhouse
gas pollution, to public transit infrastructure including permanent facilities for an
expanded and electric HandyDART fleet.
In conclusion, TransLink has some catching up to do, and a balanced examination of
insourcing HandyDART should be one of the first steps towards Access for Everyone.
35
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Access for Everyone?
Service Appendix - History of the HandyDART crisis
When elected mayors and councillors sat on the TransLink Board from 1999 to 2007, they
increased HandyDART service hours by about 5% per year to keep up with demand. But
after then Premier Gordon Campbell and Transport Minister Kevin Falcon imposed an
appointed board in 2008 everything changed.
Once the appointed board was in place, HandyDART service hours were frozen and
HandyDART trip denials soared. The situation for conventional transit was similar. In 2008,
the Provincial Liberals unveiled a grandiose pre-election transit plan.56 After the election
they reneged on many of their transit promises and cancelled planned conventional transit
bus service increases.
Most transit agencies have long acknowledged that an aging population will require more
custom transit service. For example, BC Transit’s 2011 long range plan for the Victoria area
states: “The aging population will increase the demand for handyDART and other custom
transit services in the future. This will require an increase in resources.”57 The same report
notes that there is likely a hidden demand for HandyDART service by people who have
given up on requesting service due to a lack of capacity.
The City of Vancouver’s Persons with Disabilities Advisory
Committee (PWDAC) responded to the service freeze and
proposed that HandyDART funding and service be increased to
meet the needs of the increasing population of people with
disabilities. They also opposed invasive processes to screen
HandyDART applicants as a way of reducing costs:
“Access Transit (TransLink) has been contemplating a new
process to deal with increasing demand for HandyDART
without increasing funding to meet the need. The process
they are contemplating is an invasive, time-consuming, and upsetting process, which
would discourage many people, especially persons with language issues,
developmental disabilities, persons who are older, frail or confused, from applying
for HandyDART. In essence, it solves the problem of not enough HandyDART rides by
eliminating the most vulnerable of users.”58
56 E.g. Kenneth Chan (2015) The $14 billion transit plan the B.C. Liberals conveniently forgot
dailyhive.com/vancouver/the-14-billion-transit-plan-the-b-c-liberals-conveniently-forgot
57 BC Transit (2011) Transit Future Plan: Victoria Region. P30. www.bctransit.com/victoria/transit-future/victoria-
transit-future-plan
58 (2011) Issues and Concerns about the Translink Report: “Moving Forward: Improving Metro Vancouver’s
Transportation Network.” p15
The Liberal
government
attempted to
cover up the
crisis they
created
36
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Access for Everyone?
Service The impact on people who need the service the most should be considered with regard to
the type and quality of service offered, not just the formal screening process. If people with
severe disabilities find that the service does not meet their needs, they will be screened out
and not use the service. The cost of this silent screening process may not show up on
TransLink’s financial statements, but the individuals, families and the public health care
system will pay the price.
The 2013 report Metro Vancouver’s Aging Population and the Need for Improved
HandyDART Service documented that trip denials soared by over 600% between 2008 and
2012.59 Shortly after the report was published, and the soaring trip denials were widely
reported in the media, the contractor and TransLink re-defined trip denials – apparently to
disguise the crisis.60 One headline resulting from TransLink and the contractor’s re-
definition of denial and misleading communications was “HandyDART trip denials
plummet.”61 Instead of increasing HandyDART service, the provincial Liberal government
seemingly attempted to cover up the crisis they created.
HandyDART Riders’ Alliance creates pressure for increased service
In 2013 the HandyDART Riders Alliance was formed. This group of HandyDART riders and
allies greatly increased the media coverage of the freeze in HandyDART service, and the
resulting crisis.
After the 2013 election, the provincial Liberal government imposed a
referendum requirement on new funding for TransLink, but made
the TransLink Mayors’ Council responsible for developing the plan to
be voted on. The provincial Liberal government also imposed a very
rushed timeline, ensuring that through public consultation would be
impossible. The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance and allies had to
scramble to mount a campaign to get the Mayors Council to include
funding for increased HandyDART service in their plan. The mayors’
plan was released in June 2014 and included a 30% increase in
HandyDART bus service hours over 10 years. The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance campaigned
for the yes side in the referendum on the basis of this commitment. The referendum did not
pass, but the Mayors’ hastily drafted plan became the de-facto transit plan for the region.
The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance succeeded in keeping the HandyDART crisis in the public
eye throughout 2014 and 2015. And after the HandyDART Riders’ Alliance organized a large
59 ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/ATU-HandyDART-Report-Final-Nov-15-2013.pdf
60 E.g. CBC (Nov 19, 2013) HandyDART trip denials up 670% since 2008, says group. cbc.ca/news/canada/british-
columbia/handydart-trip-denials-up-670-since-2008-says-group-1.2433056
61 Michael Mui, 24 Hours Vancouver (December 16, 2014)
TransLink
committed to
considering
taking
HandyDART in-
house
37
www.ecoplanning.ca 2023
Access for Everyone?
Service presence at the December 2015 TransLink board meeting, the TransLink board chair Barry
Forbes was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun and said:
All of us were pretty moved by the comments from the folks . . . We are concerned.
We had an offer to work with these folks more and we want to do that. We will
consider (taking HandyDART) in-house.
The Vancouver Sun also interviewed HandyDART riders:
At the meeting, Pam Winthrop said she drives her 20-year-old son from Ladner to
Richmond every day so he can get a HandyDart to his Vancouver school. He never
arrives on time. Bet Tuason, who is on kidney dialysis, said he has passed out three
times — and has had to be resuscitated — while waiting for HandyDart to show up,
while Sandra Bryan has missed her medical appointments and claims she has been
abused by the HandyDart call centre after she complained.
Beth McKellar, who suffered a spinal cord injury 16 years ago, urged TransLink to do
the right thing, noting that many people are told to take taxis instead of HandyDart,
and wind up stranded because there are none available.62
Public sector comparator promised & canceled
At this same TransLink board meeting I recommended that HandyDART riders be involved in
selecting an outside group to conduct a participatory
Multiple Accounts Evaluation Public Sector
Comparator (PSC). I also suggested that public
confidence in the results would be enhanced if the
group doing the work was conducted by a smaller
firm and led by professionals with a code of conduct
requiring clear and accurate communications with
the public, such as Registered Professional Planners.
In June 2016, TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond
committed to involving HandyDART riders in
designing a ‘public sector comparator’ to evaluate
the costs and benefits of bringing HandyDART in-
house as part of a “Custom Transit Service Delivery
Review . . . in response to a number of questions
that had been raised at TransLink Board meetings, particularity around responsiveness to
customer concerns, and the standards and quality of HandyDART and taxi services, and the
62 Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun (Dec 9, 2015) “TransLink to consider taking HandyDart in house”
vancouversun.com/news/local-news/translink-to-consider-taking-handydart-in-house
HANDYDART RIDERS’ ALLIANCE PUT
QUALITY OF SERVICE ON PUBLIC AGENDA
38
www.ecoplanning.ca 2023
Access for Everyone?
Service HandyDART service model.” The “Stakeholder Advisory Committee [was supposed to help
develop] evaluation criteria for service delivery models”63
The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance media release in response stated that they were “very
pleased with the significant commitments made by TransLink’s CEO Kevin Desmond at
today’s board meeting.”
The Custom Transit Service Delivery Review initially included a Multiple Accounts Evaluation
(MAE) of service delivery models as recommended by Ecopath Planning and requested by
the HandyDART Riders’ Alliance. Multiple Accounts Evaluation allows multiple factors, such
as safety and quality of service to be evaluated (TransLink regularly uses MAE evaluations in
evaluating projects such as rapid transit lines).
However, at some stage the MAE was terminated, and only a financial analysis was done.
TransLink hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to do the financial review, one of the firms
the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives identifies as having “potential conflict of
interest, because accurate auditing would sometimes speak against corporate practices that
yield general consulting revenues” such as contracting out and ‘private public
partnerships.’64 The names and qualifications of the people who did the financial analysis
were not included in the report summary that was released to the
public.
PwC was apparently not informed that the MAE had been
cancelled and wrote this in their Public Sector Comparator (PSC)
report: “The outputs from the PSC were incorporated into the
final Multiple Account Evaluation (“MAE”) used by TransLink and
the project Stakeholder Advisory Committee to prepare the final
recommendation to the TransLink Board.”[sic] 65
Promised Increase Diverted to Taxis
In September 2016, the new TransLink CEO announced that $820,000 was going to increase
HandyDART service as an emergency top up to meet demand, and that 90% of this would
go to HandyDART buses. In fact, the data provided by TransLink shows that slightly less than
the ‘budgeted’ number of HandyDART bus trips were delivered (also slightly less than
63Custom Transit Service Delivery Review translink.ca/en/Plans-and-Projects/Custom-Transit-Service-Review.aspx
(accessed Sept. 21, 2017).
64 Stuart Murray (2006) CCPA. Value for Money? Cautionary lessons about P3s from British Columbia. p 32
policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC_Office_Pubs/bc_2006/P3_value_for_money.pdf
65 (March 2017) TransLink Custom Transit Service Delivery Review: Public Sector Comparator Executive Report for
Public Board Meeting. P2 handydartriders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TL-HandyDART-Public-Sector-
Comparator-March-2017.pdf
It is not clear if
these decisions
were made by
TransLink or by
the provincial
Liberal
government
39
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Access for Everyone?
Service delivered in 2015), and instead taxi trips were increased by almost 30%.66 This resulted in a
record high of 10.8% taxi trips, up from less than 1% in 2008 and 3.7% in 2013.
In November 2016, the appointed TransLink Board and the Mayors’ Council both voted
unanimously to approve a ‘Phase One Plan’ which includes a 15% HandyDART increase over
3 years, starting in January 2017. This was a faster increase than what was originally in the
mayors plan, and is a recognition that the need for HandyDART greatly exceeds the supply.
TransLink staff and executives assured the HandyDART Riders Alliance that this increase
would be in the form of HandyDART bus hours, not trips using taxis.
TransLink acknowledges HandyDART crisis
In March 2017 TransLink published documents revealing that TransLink provides less
HandyDART service per capita than comparable transit agencies. One document states:
Demand for HandyDART Currently Outstrips Supply and is Anticipated to Grow: Up
until late 2016, there had been no increase in HandyDART service since 2009 . . . we
heard from many customers that it can be difficult to get a trip when needed and
that many customers have stopped calling out of frustration. In addition,
HandyDART is currently providing fewer trips per capita than our peer custom transit
agencies, which indicates that there is likely latent demand for the service.
Furthermore, recent BC Stats projections indicate the number of people in Metro
Vancouver aged 70 or older will increase by 55% over the next ten years, which
could translate into a greater need for HandyDART service, as the incidence of
disabilities increases at this age.
The same report states that HandyDART service “expansion in the Mayors’ Vision is
expected to address the increased demand to some degree, but analysis shows that it is
likely insufficient to catch up or keep pace with need.”67
The next month, the Mayors’ Council chimed in with this statement:
“The 10-Year Vision will increase this service by 30% [but] will still leave Metro
Vancouver with about half of the accessible transit trips per capita that are provided
in other similar Canadian cities, including the Capital Region. This service shortfall is
in large part a reflection of the lack of provincial support for this service which is a
backbone of the provincially funded healthcare system. This represents a download
of provincial costs onto regional taxpayers.
66 Backgrounder - HandyDART Service Provision (Provided to HandyDART Riders’ Alliance by TransLink on Jan 25,
2017)
67 Custom Transit Service Delivery Review: Outcomes and Recommendations (March 22, 2017)
handydartriders.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/HandyDART-Service-Review-March-2017.pdf
40
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Access for Everyone?
Service The Mayors’ Council is calling on all B.C. political parties to . . . commit to improving
service above and beyond the 30% increase proposed in the 10-Year Vision, so our
residents have access services at a level comparable to other major Canadian cities.68
NDP promises action – Human Rights complaint
At the Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA) provincial electoral assembly in April 2017, NDP
leader John Horgan committed to providing funding through a special grant to increase
HandyDART service hours by 5% per year (above previously planned increases) for four
years starting in 2018 for both TransLink and BC Transit HandyDART services.69
In June of 2017 the HandyDART Riders’ Alliance filed a class-action complaint with the B.C.
Human Rights Tribunal alleging discrimination in the form of
inadequate HandyDART service. The complaint alleges inferior
transit service is provided to people with physical and mental
disabilities compared to people who can use conventional public
transit.
The complaint states that
“People are being denied access to transit because they
are unable to use conventional transit without assistance.
Dignity & self-esteem are damaged. Safety is put at risk. .
.. We are unable to access physiotherapy appointments,
specialist’s appointments and other medical or recreational events. We are being
disconnected from our communities and our families and friends. We are being
isolated. This in turn causes depression, anxiety, fear and loneliness.”
Some of the incidents and patterns documented in the complaint include:
• An elderly and disabled client who was picked up at 8 am in Burnaby for an
appointment in Surrey and did not get home until 6 pm.
• A client the HandyDART contractor took to dialysis treatment, but then abandoned
to make his own way home on the bus at 9 pm in the snow.
• Riders forced to pay twice when the trip involves transferring from HandyDART bus
to taxi.
The complaint quotes a number of individual riders, family members and health
professionals. Quotes include:
68 mayorscouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Backgrounder-HandyDART-1.pdf
69 Metro Vancouver Alliance. (no date) Over 800 delegates heard commitments from provincial party leaders. Our
Provincial Election Accountability Assembly was a success! metvanalliance.org
NDP leader John
Horgan
committed to
increase
HandyDART
service hours 20%
above previously
planned increases
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Access for Everyone?
Service • “During the summer, the taxi service could not be depended upon to pick up
HandyDART clients as they would take passengers from the Cruise ships as priority as
that is where the money is. This is a taxi driver’s priority. Our client had to wait until
6pm or later for a taxi to finally show up.”
• “This client is 15 years old with the mental capacity of a 4 year old. They attend
dialysis at BC Children’s Hospital three times weekly. They live in Burnaby. Their
problem is that HandyDART has been denying them return trips home from BC
Children’s as their trip does not fall between the hours scheduled by MVT for Service
between Vancouver and outlying communities.”
• “No bus showed up and when I called to ask ‘where's my ride’, dispatch indicated
that a taxi is on its way – for some reason a taxi never showed up till about 10:15 am
and I had missed my physio appointment”
The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance complaint was accepted by the Human Rights Tribunal, and
a negotiated settlement was announced in 2019.70
John Horgan became Premier of BC in July 2017 but did not fulfil his commitments to fund
an fund an increase HandyDART service in Metro Vancouver.
Move to replace HandyDART service with taxis
Safe and good quality HandyDART service that meets the needs of the most vulnerable
riders should not be negotiable, it should be the baseline. However, once the elected
TransLink board was removed in 2008, TransLink and/or provincial government officials
seem to have decided that safety and quality of service was not important.
In 2012 Martin Crilly, then TransLink Commissioner, released the TransLink Efficiency
Review by Shirocca Consulting of North Vancouver.71 Shirocca Consulting concludes that:
“Increasing the use of non-dedicated vehicles, such as taxis, could be done relatively
quickly and would offer cost savings. While it is acknowledged there maybe concerns
over service quality, these can be managed.”72
As discussed below, safety and service quality problems with taxis in custom transit service
are extremely difficult to overcome so this unsupported assurance that these problems
“can be managed” should be viewed with scepticism. Unsupported claims of cost savings
should be viewed with similar scepticism.
70 Media Release: TransLink and HandyDART Riders’ Alliance Announce Settlement Agreement (March 22, 2019)
handydartriders.ca/?p=484
71 Martin Crilly’s term as TransLink Commissioner ended April 30, 2013
72 P 92
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Access for Everyone?
Service Following the Shirocca report, TransLink announced cuts of 10,000 hours in HandyDART
service, about 2% of the service, with the stated intention of re-allocating the money to
taxis. In a letter to the Vancouver Sun, TransLink’s Chief Operating Officer claimed to
“expect an overall addition of 7,000 customer trips” with this funding re-allocation.73 In
response to a freedom of information request, TransLink explained that the claimed
‘expectation’ of 7,000 additional trips is based on comparing “low-productivity HandyDART
runs” – with the fewest trips per hour – to “average taxi trip cost.” 74 Comparing the highest
cost HandyDART trips to the average taxi trip cost as appears to have been done in this case
seems to be poor methodology at best. Accurately estimating the taxi cost for these trips
would be fairly complex since factors such as traffic congestion affect taxi fares; it should be
expected that some of the low-productivity HandyDART runs operate in heavy traffic.
The assertion that taxis provide much less expensive service is not borne out by the
available evidence. Instead, taxis seem to be providing a less demanding type of service to
people with less severe disabilities at costs similar to dedicated services such as
HandyDART. Anecdotal reports suggest that taxis contracted by HandyDART often provide
only curb to curb service rather than the reliable door to door service required by many of
the HandyDART users.
Even if taxis were substantially less expensive, unsafe and poor quality service is never a
bargain.
Are Taxis Cheaper & Good Enough?
There is a history of simplistic and misleading claims regarding the cost of HandyDART
service compared to taxis in Metro Vancouver. For example, in 1995 a group calling itself
Fair Access to Custom Transit (F.A.C.T.) proposed replacing HandyDART service completely
with taxis as a cost saving measure. In response, BC Transit staff pointed out significant
errors in F.A.C.T’s analysis and noted that Maple Ridge Cabs had recently lost a HandyDART
contract and that Yellow Cabs of Vancouver had recently
submitted a proposal with the “highest cost (about 18 percent
higher than the successful proposer) and lowest evaluation score
of all four proposals”75
The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities (BCCPD) rejected the
F.A.C.T. taxi proposal and any privatization of HandyDART,
stating that it would “leave the most vulnerable consumers
isolated and disempowered [and] make it very difficult to
monitor the system to ensure that standards of safety are being
73 Doug Kelsey (June 6, 2013) “HandyDart pilot project an attempt to better meet demand” Vancouver Sun.
74 Liina Marshall (Sept. 9, 2013) FOI Request 2013/172. TransLink – Access Transit. TransLink withheld all actual
cost information on the basis that it could “harm the financial or economic interests of a public body.”
75 Glen Leicester (May 2, 1995) F.A.C.T. Report on Taxi Service. BC Transit. P5
BC Transit staff
pointed out that
the taxi proposal
had the highest
cost and lowest
evaluation score
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Access for Everyone?
Service met and abuses are not occurring.” 76 77 The BCCPD raised an important point about the
most vulnerable HandyDART riders: lowering standards through increased contracting to
taxis may create a system that is not suitable for the people who need it the most. The
Amalgamated Transit Union noted in its analysis of the F.A.C.T. proposal that “Poor service
from the taxi industry is not the fault of the taxi drivers, but how those drivers are rewarded
for their service. They are rewarded for speed over safety.”78
Experience in the US also shows that substituting taxis for dedicated vehicles with specially
trained drivers results in sub-standard service to passengers with disabilities. For example, a
2008 US Transportation Research Board report notes that using dedicated vehicles rather
than taxis results in better trained drivers “providing a better quality of service to
paratransit passengers” (p 22). The same report suggests that metered taxis are often
available for custom transit only when other taxi business is slow. 79
The HandyDART Riders’ Alliance claimed that taxis are often completely unavailable at peak
demand times, and when anything is going on that increases the demand for taxis (such as a
major sporting event or the arrival of a cruise ship). The union representing HandyDART
drivers confirmed this information.
TransLink’s 2017 Custom Transit Service Delivery Review: Outcomes and Recommendations
report discusses some of these persistent problems:
Persistent and significant concerns have been raised about the customer service
provided by taxis. Training of taxi drivers that provide custom transit trips is
currently inconsistent and not on par with the training for HandyDART drivers. As
such, we have heard reports from customers that safety protocols and general good
customer service practices are not always followed. Furthermore, customers are not
informed that their trip will be provided by a taxi and the advance notification call is
often not provided or is inaccurate. In addition, taxis often neglect to display
appropriate HandyDART signage and it can be difficult for customers to discern,
particularly in busy locations, if the arriving taxi is for their trip.
A US Transportation Research Board (TRB) report points out that the skills and personality
traits that make for a successful taxi driver are very different from those that make for a
good custom transit driver providing safe door-to-door service for people with severe
disabilities. “Taxicab drivers tend to be independent contractors. Finding people who have
76 The BCCPD has since changed its name to Disability Alliance BC
77 BCCPD (June 1995) Response to the FACT Brief. P 3.
78 Craig Wright (1995) Cheaper equals better??? A comparison of accessible, door to door transportation services
for persons with disabilities in BC. Canadian Council of the Amalgamated Transit Union. P13
79 David Chia (2008) Policies and Practices for Effectively and Efficiently Meeting ADA Paratransit Demand.
Transportation Research Board. P25
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Access for Everyone?
Service the entrepreneurial skills to be independent contractors and who meet all the requirements
of a paratransit driver is an even more difficult task.” 80
A coordinator for a day program for older adults in Metro Vancouver described in a June
2013 letter how substituting taxis for regular HandyDART service puts clients at risk and
creates extra work for hospital staff.
“On three separate occasions a specific client was dropped off at the emergency
entrance as opposed to the planned drop off area which is the Day Program for
Older Adults entrance . . .It was fortunate that staff in emergency approached our
client and took him down to the Day Program. This client has dementia . . . and
several other complex medical conditions. This client would not have been able to
navigate his way through the hospital to get to the Day Program. . . We are very
concerned about the use of taxis with our clients who mostly have been diagnosed
with some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.”
A more detailed timeline and description of issues with taxis in paratransit service is
included in the 2017 Ecopath Planning report Metro Vancouver’s Aging Population and the
need for Quality HandyDART Service.81
80 Roy Lave & Rosemary Mathias (2000) State of the Art of Paratransit. Transportation Research Board. Pp 3-4.
81 ecoplanning.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Quality-HandyDART-Final-Oct-16-2017.pdf