End the strike, declare buses essential

By Krystal Tabin

tabi0007@algonquincollege.com

The singing bus driver. The hour-long waits when a bus mysteriously doesn't show up. The crazy guy who tells you his life story.

In Ottawa, it is hard to find a person who does not have a story of being on the bus. It's no wonder when on an average day, OC Transpo provides service to approximately 350,000 riders. That is 40 per cent of Ottawa's population.

With that huge a proportion of the city using the service, why hasn't OC Transpo been named an essential service for the city?

A service is deemed essential if halting the service would cause the public to be placed in serious danger. Serious danger can be categorized several ways.

The most minor direct danger, although by no means inconsequential, is the harm to the environment. The City of Ottawa developed an environmental strategy that was approved in 2003. One of the four main goals in this strategy was “A focus on walking, cycling and transit to encourage sustainable transportation choices.” By having buses canceled, vehicles on the road have increased dramatically.

The next danger is a larger scale economical issue. Throughout the holiday season, many downtown seasons experienced declines in sales that were quiet for a normal day, yet alone holiday shopping season.

On a more personal level, people are suffering  because of the strike. Some people are having trouble getting to their doctors, especially the elderly. The city even set up with a $200,000 emergency fund to help low-income citizens who have lost or may lose their job due to the bus strike. This fund has already been bled dry as calls to the city for help have increased from 700 to 1,800.

The number of people affected negatively by the strike far outweighs the number of people affected by the union agreement. Soon the entire city will start to crumble. The only responsible thing for the citizens, the economy and the environment is to make buses an essential service and end the strike.

Convenient, yes. Essential, no

By Kristen Campbell

camp0504@algonquincollege.com

An essential service is a utility that people's lives depend on. It is a service that will put the population's health and safety in danger when no longer running. Health care, police and firefighters are all examples of essential services. Without these the well-being of a population of a city like Ottawa would be in jeopardy.

People could die without access to these services.

Transportation, on the other hand, is not a service that should be considered essential.

Throughout this bus strike people have been inconvenienced, but they are still able to continue on with their lives. No one's life is directly in danger without public transportation. The population will not perish because they do not have access to buses.

Algonquin has set up a ride-share board on their website to help students get to and from school. Communities have come together to help each other get around town by carpooling. People are walking around town. The lack of public transportation is an inconvenience, but we can still survive without it.

Most people in Ottawa do not have far to commute to get to their schools and workplaces. It is fairly easy for people to get around without public transportation.

People have managed to survive without public transportation in the past and with the ongoing strike will continue to do so. It is not necessary to deem public transportation an essential service when really, it is not essential. It is a luxury and a convenience, but not essential to the functioning of the city of Ottawa. Many cities do not even have the extensive public transit system that Ottawa has. We should consider ourselves lucky to have it when it is running.

Mass transportation is not an essential service and should not be deemed one.