Monday, January 12, 2009

Ottawa Transit Strike

As you may be aware, workers for the City of Ottawa’s transit system have been on strike since the end of December. According to an article at CBC.ca, the strike and the lack of transit service is costing the local Ottawa economy $4 million dollars a week just in commuting costs alone. It has also played havoc with businesses and work schedules. The situation is such that the City of Ottawa is looking at opening up their busway (which I blogged about earlier) to general traffic and removing parking restrictions in their downtown. This, of course, is not good for businesses that requires a flow of traffic aka costumers. You hear some people say that transit is a waste of money. Clearly it is not in Ottawa. Transit helps connect communities in social, economical, and environmentally friendly ways that the car can't. Imagine Metro Vancouver with no public transit, or Downtown Vancouver if it was all parking lots. (I know there was a bus strike a few years back, but I believe the SkyTrain still ran), not good.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fire them all, drivers mechanics, get rid of the UNION.
Bring IN the Army guys/gals (and give them a well-desrved bonus for this), to begin the transition.
AND then, start hiring/with training if required NON-UNION -ESSENTIAL service Candadians. Young and old welcome..

Give then $40K per year plus ALL benefits and Bonuses.
Do you have any idea how many Canadians need work and would glady apply ?!!!!!!

-now we can lower the monthly BUS-passes to atleast HALF !!!
-everyone is happy.

I'm one of them.
80K <-> 100K per year ? just to drive an OVERSIZED VAN !!!!?? -like comon ?!!!

And finally, last but not least, fire Larry O'Brien and i hope he gets prosecuted to boot -and ship him back to FLORIDA.
COMON' Canadians
wake up!