The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Is Ontario Transit Becoming Less Safe?

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Some transit riders say the experience in Ontario is changing, with more visible drug use and increasingly unpredictable behaviour on buses, streetcars, and subways. But is public transit actually becoming less safe, or are perceptions outpacing the data? And would expanding the powers of special constables improve conditions for riders and staff? We examine what is known about recent safety concerns, how they are being measured, and what policy responses are under consideration. Andrew Pulsifer, executive director of TTC Riders, David Cooper, principal of Leading Mobility Consulting, and Kelly Aizicowitz, board member at A Better City, discuss the data, the lived experience, and what changes, if any, could make a difference for transit systems and the people who rely on them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They do not feel safe on our subways. That was Premier Doug Ford back in February, talking about the TTC and concerns about public drug use. When you're sitting there and some guy is drugged out, he has a needle in his, arm, jacking it into his arm. It's ridiculous. They need to get off the subways and make the subway the safest subways. Now, he says he's going to take action by giving special constables the power to make arrests for drug use on transit. So, is the Premier right? And is more enforcement the answer?

We dig into what the data says and what it would take to keep all riders safe. Welcome to the rundown. Some riders think transit in Ontario is going downhill. More public drug use, more unpredictable behavior. So is it actually getting riskier? And will giving special constables more power make a difference? Andrew Pulsifer is the executive director of TTC riders, a transit advocacy organization. David Cooper is the principle of leading mobility consulting. And Kelly Isakovitz is a board member.

at the not-for-profit, a better city. I want to welcome you all to our program. Thank you so much for joining us. Let's start off. I'm going to start with you, Andrew. The Ontario government plans to give special constable's powers to ticket and arrest people who use illegal illicit drugs on transit. Help us understand a little bit.

Is this different from what they can previously do? There's a little bit of, when we talk about sort of the laws and changes there, pretty small, but is there a big difference there? Well, yeah, you're right. Special constables do already have. have the ability to arrest people who are using drugs on transit. This changes whether it's a federal crime or a provincial one. What we're really talking about here is it allows them to issue fines of up to $10,000,

six months in prison. And I will say that safety is a real concern on public transit. But what this is doing is more criminalizing a health crisis that is of Doug Ford's own making. So in your eyes, good idea or bad idea? Yeah, we don't want to see more enforcement on public transit. We have to recognize that there are a lot of people that feel less safe by increased enforcement on public transit. So we would rather see a compassionate approach, more care workers on the system, helping people find treatment, helping people find housing, than more enforcement. David, good idea, bad idea.

I think what the transit agencies have always been clear about when it comes to transit safety is that we need the compassionate approach from an outreach perspective. And we've seen the standing up of several different outreach programs across transit agencies across North America in terms of providing social supports or referrals. But transit agencies have also been very clear that we also need enforcement. And that includes from having staff conducting enforcement when there are times where someone maybe in distress needs help. but also the kind of the background tools. So one of the things that has been really a challenge on the safety conversation we've had is that for the outreach supports,

we need those gateways to health care, the gateways of the harm reduction, the gateways to housing and other supports, but also on the enforcement side, we need the ability to enforce proper conduct in the transit system. And agencies across North America have been very clear.

We actually need both. Okay. Kelly. Well, we've called for a zero tolerance policy for drug use on the TTC. So when we saw the Premier's announcement, we thought it was a step in the right direction. We do believe that anybody who has a mental health or addiction issue absolutely needs to get into appropriate care.

Compassion and enforcement are not mutually exclusive, but I think this problem is ballooning, and we can't not take action. All right. I want to read a statement from the Ontario Special Constable Association. They were unable to join us on our panel because they didn't have anyone available, but they did give us this statement. So it reads in part, it is a meaningful step forward in supporting special constables working in public transit and strengthening safety across the system's millions of Ontarians rely on every day. It also signals something more important in acknowledgement that the role of special constables has evolved and will continue to evolve.

As responsibilities grow in complexity across sectors, the framework that supports, this work must keep pace. Public safety in Ontario is a shared responsibility and special constables are an integral part of this system. All right, let's look at the most recent numbers from the City of Toronto on TTC Safety. This is as of April 2026. The number of offenses against customers per million is 1.71. Offenses against TTC employees are 6.25 per 100. There were 1,012 calls for service about safety issues in April of this year. The number of community safety issues reported to police was 141. There were 327 harm reduction transactions. That's defined by the number of people receiving supports, referrals, or supplies such as naloxin

kits. And finally, the monthly customer satisfaction survey showed 59% of riders feel personally safe on transit. Kelly, I'm going to come to you. All these numbers have actually slightly risen from the month before. Looking at that data, what does that data reveal to you? Well, I think there is there are some questions about, you know, it's self-reported, so is it actually accurate? Just yesterday, as an example, my daughter and I got off the subway at Spadina Station, and we were greeted by a screaming man

beating a payphone with its receiver. In that moment, I needed to get her out of the subway, and the mayor has talked about calling 311 or using an app to report. I didn't have time to do that, and quite frankly, most transit riders don't have time. time to do that because they're on their way somewhere. So I think that we have to look at the data with a bit of a grain of salt. That customer satisfaction number, as you said, that's come

down this month. And it's not really surprising when you look over the last couple of weeks at videos that have surfaced all over social media of meth use on transit, people in sleeping bags, at the back of street cars. And we think that's unacceptable. The T.T.E. DC needs to be safe and drug-free for its riders. All right. Andrew, data from the state of Toronto shows that harm reduction interactions spiked in February and have slightly risen ever since. Help us understand what's happening there. Well, Doug Ford has been in the process of shutting down safe consumption sites throughout the province. More are closing this month.

And you're seeing that manifest in more public drug use across Toronto. And yes, including on the TTC. So that's why this is really a problem that Doug Ford has created by doing that. We need more mental health and addiction supports. We need to reopen safe consumption sites across the city because we're not just seeing public drug use spike. We're seeing overdoses. We're seeing emergency room visits spike as well. So that's really, I think, the ultimate cause for what we're seeing across transit and across the city.

In terms of the stories that Kelly had just shared, is that what you're hearing as well from people who are writing? So safety is a real concern, and I'm so sorry that happened to you and your daughter. We can't devalue that and gaslight people and saying, oh, the numbers are trending in the right direction. 59% of people is not a good number for perceptions of safety. However, there is a difference between feeling unsafe and feeling uncomfortable. And I do think we have to recognize that. And that's why upstream solutions is really what we're looking at here. It's more supportive housing.

It's more affordable housing. It's more safe consumption sites and mental health and addiction supports. And it's more people who are proactively trying to bring folks into care on the system. Right? Like we have seen expansions of streets to homes workers who are on the system trying to find people housing. I think that should be expanded even further. things like the Toronto Community Crisis Service Workers who are trained in de-escalation. They should be proactively on the system, right, and helping people find care when they need it.

David, I want to zoom out a little bit. How do these stats, compared to what you've studied across Ontario but also broader in Canada? So looking really across North America, what we've seen is we've seen an uptick in offenses when we had the beginning parts, the acute parts of the pandemic, what we're starting to see across North America is a downward trend when it comes to offenses against customers and offenses against staff.

There are some nuances to the data, so typically I would look kind of more broadly at multi-years, and we have a lot of impacts from seasonality. We have a lot more complexity that happens on transit. Typically between November and I would say March and April when it comes to some of the more societal complex issues. We've been seeing a lot more standing up

of the Community Partnership Program, We've seen increased staffing when it comes to enforcement. One of the things that I always want to be cognizant of is that no matter how much, you know, we are increasing our staff or our partnerships, perception of safety will always be a parallel swim lane to the data. And it's not our place from the perspective of the transit sector to say, hey, you felt unsafe or I disagree with you feeling unsafe when the numbers are not saying otherwise. You know, we've seen some improvements, but every customer has their own specific journey. If they see one thing on one day that makes them feel uncomfortable, that stays with you. And I think the onus is really on us to say, okay, what can we do to help you feel safer? And a lot of that is really access to staff, access to support programs, and access to being responsive to specific needs, right?

And sometimes that's reducing the barrier to get help. That's sometimes having the staff person there. But those are things that have been a challenge really all across North America is that, perception is very individual, and we will not debate that with you. And the onus is really on us to say, okay, here's all the things we're doing, but here's how we can help you and your specific time and place of the situation. All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the perception versus reality.

I appreciate you sharing that story. In terms of what transit systems can do better to sort of communicate that perhaps, you are going to be safe if you take the TTC or OCE transport, what can they do? I think it's a matter of more visible policing or social work teams who are on the system so that people feel a sense of security. I've been on other transit systems across the world in New York. There are police down, you know, in Times Square. They are a feature of that subway station and having the same sorts of enforcement on buses and on streetcars to make people have confidence in the system. we need, I think, a wholesale change at City Hall to really focus in on addressing these issues.

All right. Andrew, get your time in here. Sort of how much of this is perception versus reality? As you mentioned, sort of the conversation of being uncomfortable versus what is actually dangerous here. How do we sort of navigate that? Yeah, well, David was right. Like the numbers are trending in the right direction, generally speaking, right? Like, over the past, safety incidents could have peaked in like 2022, 2023, but it's certainly still much higher than it was pre-pandemic, right?

So that is something that needs to be addressed and we need to sort of figure out a solution. I don't know quite how one can communicate that transit is safe if people are not feeling safe, right? Like, if people have that one experience that sticks with them, like, how do you get them to go back to taking transit. There's a few other things that lead to ridership growth. It's not just safety. Like, it's also about making sure that your bus or streetcar comes on time.

Right. That's also a safety concern. We know from speaking to riders that the place that people feel the least safe often is waiting for a train or a street car that's just not arriving, right, on the platform. So if it comes more regularly, people will hopefully feel more safe. I do agree that we do need just visible presence of staff. I don't think that those staff should necessarily be police. Okay.

Right? Why not? Well, because there are many people who do feel unsafe with the presence of enforcement officers. And we know that the statistics show that, like, black and indigenous people are approached by police 30% more often on transit. And there have been very well-reported incidents of violence from special constables and, from police on transit. I personally don't really, you know, I'm a big white guy, right? So I recognize my privilege there, but I don't think I would feel that much safer

if I'm seeing on a daily basis people being violently arrested on public transit, or if I saw, you know, cops walking through every subway station with submachine guns, right? Like, I don't want to live in a police state. Kelly, what do you think? I'm a small white woman, and I recognize there is privilege in that. But yesterday was the perfect example of when being able to actually have somebody to go speak to would have been helpful to us. Because the fact of the matter is, is that after he finished beating the pay phone, he got on the train. And so then he's on a small compact space with a lot of other people, and I don't know what happened there.

if there had been somebody close by that I could have spoken to, you know, that the situation might have been able to be avoided and something worse not happen. I obviously don't know that that happened, but I think for women who are riding on the TTC, there have been instances of sexual assaults being grabbed at, and, you know, the people who are best equipped to deal with that are going to be the police.

I don't want to see submachine guns at Bloor Station or Young Station either, but there is a gendered part to this that I think we have to keep in mind. All right. Andrew had brought it up, so David, I'm going to ask you, how can government transit authorities guard against unfair targeting of racialized people or unhoused? We're talking about some of the most vulnerable members of our community already. How do they sort of go about sort of a balance of making sure that,

Anyone who takes transit feels safe, but that we are not targeting people unjustly. So part of the work that we did in the national study on the impacts responses to drug use on transit, we went to five U.S. cities to look at both the outreach and enforcement approach. And I've also been across Canadians systems looking at this with the frontline staff from both of those components. And one of the things when you look at the legislation is that either under the provincial offense or criminal code, The first thing is what it states is you ask them to stop from committing the offense of using illicit drugs. So it's not automatic enforcement. There's a request, you know, asked to stop.

And then usually it goes to diversion. You know, can I help you? Can I go? Can we get you a support or referral? I usually find most agencies and most police services and the social service partners usually go that approach. I think one of the challenges when we look at enforcement is that one, it's pretty rare to get a fine or a charge on possession, to be honest. One is because typically the charge doesn't stick.

It's usually waived from a resourcing perspective. But two, the other part that happens is if an enforcement officer, and I've seen this so many times now in the field, an enforcement officer does the enforcement components when it comes to, let's say, a charge or a seizure or processing in that sense, That officer is now offline for two to three hours. And when we have a finite amount of human resources for officers on the system, when we have a finite amount of resources, let's say, on the social service side,

to lose that person, it has to be a pretty big reason for them to do the enforcement piece, to lose that person for two to three hours. Because what's going to be the priority for them is if a call for service comes in where someone's in physical harm or there's a potential for violence or some sort of emergency medical situation, that does take precedence. So I think one of the challenges on the enforcement side is that even if you were to do enforcement, it's not as done as much as I think people think it is because the amount of

draw takes away from having that person for acute response is there. And that cost benefit, I hate to say it that way, happens in the officer's mind or even with the social service provider mind where it's like, you know, what outcome do I get from this versus, let's say, other things I may not be able to do in the time. that I'm offline dealing with something. Okay. Andrew, help me understand a little bit. You raised, you know, sort of making sure that racialized people, unhoused, vulnerable citizens

are not unfairly targeted. How can the government or agents' transit authorities sort of balance making sure anyone who takes to TTC or O.C. Transpo or any transit in this province feels like they can take it safely but not being targeted? Well, it can't just entirely be up to the TTC, right, to solve every societal issue. But governments can provide more housing, basically, is the straight answer on that. We just need more supports for folks. These are the reasons that we see increased unhoused population on transit is because we don't have shelter space.

Shelters are overcapacity. We don't have enough support of housing. And it can't just be on the TTC to fail. fix that issue, that that's, that's ultimately going to solve it. How much of this issue then, if we are enforcing and we are ticketing or if we are doing sort of arrests that don't last, how much of this problem is just really moving this problem from transit over to, you know, a nearby park or, you know, somewhere else across the city? Or to our jails, which are also overcapacity.

Absolutely. It's not, the move along strategies don't really work too. is just where that's where police patrol the TTC and just kick people off, and then they end up going somewhere else, so they go to another transit vehicle. That's why people who are proactively on the system to get people's services like supportive housing, permanent, permanent, affordable, deeply affordable housing,

and mental health supports if they need that, is always going to be a better solution. All right, I'm going to read a quick statement. This is from OC trans, they are in Ottawa, they are also subject to special constables having arrest powers. We invited OC Transpo to this panel, but they declined, but they did send the statement. So it reads, OC Transpo is aware of the province of Ontario's announcement regarding proposed expanded authorities for special constables on public transit systems. The safety of our customers and employees remain our top priority.

OC transpose special consulates already play an important role in supporting a safe and secure transit system, working closely with the Ottawa Police Services. We will review the new legislation in detail and work with the province and policing partners to understand how any changes will be implemented in Ottawa, including any required training for our staff. Our focus will remain on ensuring that any measures are applied appropriately, consistently, in a way that supports both safety and customer service across the system. Kelly, as you mentioned, your organization is calling for zero tolerance for use and transit. I do want to clarify. We're talking alcohol as well.

We're talking about vaping. Does that fall under? I think when we talk about drugs, we kind of jump straight to sort of something like meth. But are we talking drinking and vaping as well? Yeah. Okay. How can Ontario Transition balance compassion while policing the presence of drugs? Well, I think it's a matter of different levels of government working together on this.

I think when Torontoians or people in Ottawa come home after experiencing an incident on the TTC, they're not having a debate. about which level of government should address the problem. They just want it fixed. And so if it's more supportive housing, as Andrew mentioned, enforcement, and having an integrated approach where, you know, we have social workers on the TTC working in hand, I think the approach needs to be coordinated. Sometimes it feels as though the left hand and the right hand aren't really working together. And we need all different levels of government to come together to sort of force that coordination.

Because it seems like the transit systems, the municipal governments, the province are all on different islands right now, talking about the same problem, not working in a coordinated fashion with each other. So I think that's a big, when you step back, that's a big part of it. When you're working with some of the transit organizations, does that seem like a disconnect as well? I think there's a disconnect, but there's also a connect. Like, I think the overall priority of everyone is not to have drug use on transit. From a customer safety perspective, a staff safety perspective, I think one of the things that was very eye-opening to me going out in the field with staff in several cities

is that the ecosystem people actually know each other on a first-name basis. And some of the challenges that we're having are a lot of the same people that may have a number of differing complexities. And one of the things that has been really falling into a big challenge is like how do we have, you know, a compassionate case management when it comes to working with individuals that may not have a safe place to stay, that may have complexity when it comes to mental health, when they have complexity when it comes to substance use. And having that continuity of care has been a really big missing piece. And there's been in some cities where we have transit officers in other jurisdictions outside this province where they're doing that case management. absence of someone else. And one of the things that is very challenging is we don't deal with

these kind of upstream issues. You know, people come to transit because it's safe and familiar to them. You know, humans are creatures of habit. And if you have these environments where you feel safe to be in and to do what you need to do and you don't have that overall case management continuity of care, which is a provincial responsibility, then this is the situation that we're in. And the thing that's just been so eye-opening, spending time with the outreach workers and with, you know, law enforcement out in the system seeing this is that everyone knows each other. And what's ended up happening in absence of the public health component or the housing component, a lot of the lot of times the frontline staff are doing the case management in the absence of someone else.

And that's something that we really need to get addressed. Zooming out even further, I don't want to, I don't want to put you on the spot in terms of what city is doing this better. But are there states in the U.S.? Are there cities here in Canada that have gotten safety right on transit? So I think we've seen some encouraging trends depending on the city and the model.

Everyone does things somewhat differently, and it's because of either the resources that you have from a financial perspective, the direction you may have from your city council, the support you have from your partners. We've seen some really positive results in Calgary. They've significantly expanded their outreach team, They've also significantly expanded their covenant of special constables and strengthen their relationship with the Calgary Police Service.

We've seen some really positive steps and outcomes from there. We've seen differentials of who does what in terms of dealing with some over the root issues. Some police services have spent a lot of time dealing with drug trafficking. So instead of looking at individuals that may have possession where it is still an offense, depending on which enforcement tool you want to look at me, particularly from a criminal scope perspective, but what they want to focus this on is who's supplying, and the ones who are doing the drug trafficking

are the ones who are also victimizing the vulnerable. They're the ones who are also harassing our staff. They're the ones that are causing issues in and around the station from an issue displacement perspective. So I get asked all the time who's figured this out, out. And I think different agencies and their partners have done different approaches where we're starting to see some benefits. I think we need to get more data. We need to get more insights from this. We're trying to manage this. No one has solved this. This is not a bespoke issue to Toronto.

This is not a bespoke issue across North America. And we're all trying to find ways to manage it. And I think to Kelly's point, there's always room for better coordination. There's always room for the building of these new partnerships. And there's always room for the sustainment of it. And that's That's something that I know I'm keen on, and I think the transit agency as a whole are also having a very eyes wide open, keen conversation on as well. In our last minute of conversation, I have a question for both of you. Recommendations or suggestions that you have for the government or transit authorities on the topic of safety, Andrew. Well, yeah, it's having more proactive staff like streets to homes workers, the loft community workers, the Toronto Community Crisis Service workers, which is right now just in the pilot stage. It's just on the U of the subway line.

We do hope that that's expanded throughout the entire system, specifically our streetcar network. A lot of the complaints that we hear about public safety occur on our streetcar network, which are also just painfully slow and unreliable. So definitely that and also seeing an increase in service, fixing our state of good repair backlog so our streetcars can run on time would be a huge boost to safety as well. but proactive folks on the system is, I think, one of the best solutions.

Kelly, you could go close to. Yeah, I would agree with all of that. And taking a step back, I would say to Torontoans, we don't have to accept this as our status quo. We can demand better. The TTC can become the better way again. And that is going to take leadership from City Hall, from the mayor, from council. And that is, that's what our focus is an organization. is going to be is talking about, you know, the expectations that Torontoans can have for safety on the TTC and in our city.

All right. We're going to have to leave it there. I really appreciate it. Kelly, Andrew, David. Thank you so much for your insights. Thanks for having us. I'm Jan. Thanks for watching The Rundown.

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