On Thursday, Transport Minister Genevieve Guilbault presented an independent audit of public transit agencies in the province, which outlined a path for up to $346 million in savings each year.
The audit, conducted by the private firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, was a condition of provincial funding meant to keep the agencies’ deficits at bay for the coming year.
But some of the largest possible savings are said to come from outsourcing elements of service – an approach that runs contrary to what’s spelled out in workers’ collective agreements.
For Frédéric Therrien, president of the union of STM bus drivers, the planned privatization is unacceptable. “On the backs of workers, on the backs of the clientele, on the service to the population, we cut again and again.”
