End of the road for Chair-A-Van, drivers
Specialized transportation will be offered by Niagara Region
A specialized transit service operating for decades in Niagara Falls will fold at the end of the month, putting its drivers out of work as Niagara Region Transit takes over the duties.
Chair-A-Van service has been run by St. John Ambulance for more than 45 years, providing rides for people with physical or mental limitations who can’t use the conventional bus service.
The agency had a contract with the City of Niagara Falls to provide the local paratransit service using city-owned vehicles.
With the amalgamation of transit services across Niagara, the Niagara Falls vehicles and service delivery are being taken over by the new regional transit commission.
St. John Ambulance said 16 parttime casual drivers and one fulltime office staff member were laid off. Their last day is Thursday. They can apply for work in the new system.
In a press release this month, Niagara Region Transit (NRT) said the transition was a “collaborative decision” made between Niagara Transit Commission and St. John Council of Ontario, which operates as St. John Ambulance, after “months of careful consideration and co-operation.”
Brian Cole, chief executive officer of St. John Council for Ontario, said in an interview NRT wanted to fully amalgamate all of its specialty services across the region.
For St. John to continue running Chair-A-Van, he said it would have to look at a way to regionalize the program, which only operates in Niagara Falls and is the only St. John program of its type in the province.
He said St. John wasn’t in a position to consider an amalgamated opportunity.
“It wouldn’t have been feasible economically for St. John, for an organization such as ours,” Cole said. “And it wasn’t a part of our core mandate.”
Cole said St. John Ambulance’s primary function in Ontario communities is the delivery of first aid
services and training.
“We do sincerely appreciate the profound efforts of everybody involved in Chair-A-Van, past and present, over this 45plus year legacy that we’ve been in existence,” Cole said. “And we do, hopefully, plan to recognize them later this year in collaboration with the Niagara Transit Commission.”
Carla Stout, general manager of NRT, said it was always anticipated the transit system would co-mingle contracted services across the region to find efficiencies, as directed by regional council and municipalities when decisions were made to amalgamate.
In Niagara Falls and Welland, paratransit service was already provided by the local transit commissions.
“What’s actually been achieved here is harmonizing the levels of service between the big three conventional systems to include specialized service provided in-house,” Stout said.
But some Chair-A-Van drivers were shocked to learn they weren’t being included in the amalgamation and are losing their jobs.
“They don’t have enough drivers, so they posted our jobs in the transit building and had a whole bunch of regular transit drivers sign up to take our jobs,” said one driver, adding NRT then had to hire more people to fill those jobs.
The driver asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal,
saying employees are under a gag order and could still be fired before Friday for talking, which would make it harder to get employment insurance.
The driver, who applied to NRT but was not hired, said some employees have been on the job for 10 years and will be replaced by people who don’t know their clients and needs.
“It’s surprising, disheartening, depressing.”
The Standard spoke with nine drivers who had been terminated. Six of those applied to work at NRT and reached various stages of the hiring process. Only one, who had previously worked for one of the city transit commissions before the amalgamation, received a job offer.
“I really felt something was going to come out of it,” said one driver, who added despite having a great interview did not pass testing.
“I was really looking forward to the position.”
Another driver who applied and didn’t hear back said the NRT didn’t give Chair-A-Van drivers a chance.
“They literally threw us under the bus.”
Cole said St. John “strongly encouraged” Niagara Region to consider moving St. John employees over to the new system, but there were differences in environments being union and non-union.
St. John drivers are not unionized. NRT drivers are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union.
Stout said all Chair-A-Van drivers were given an opportunity to apply to NRT, which
posts openings for bus operators on a regular basis.
She said they would have to go through the same interview and process that all new applicants are put through. That includes health checks and licence checks, plus training and development.
“It’s an extensive process,” she said. “You go for everything from a medical to a simulated drive test.”
Those hired would have to start as a new driver, she said, and may or may not be given paratransit jobs as more senior operators may take up those assignments.
Stout didn’t know how many of the Chair-A-Van drivers applied to NRT or if any were successful.
The former manager of Niagara Falls Transit, she said NRT is thankful to St. John for running the Chair-A-Van service for more than 45 years.
“I certainly know quite a few of the drivers that would come in and out every day to pick up the vans. And I’m very understanding of how this is impacting people if they were unsuccessful in coming on board as an NRT driver regular,” Stout said.
“But this is kind of part and parcel of amalgamation. There are going to be harmonizations. And some agencies, whether they’re interested or not in going forward in a contract or delivery, that’s up to them as well.”
St. John had about 3,500 clients registered with Chair-AVan. Those who use the service on a regular basis are estimated to be in the hundreds.
NRT said the transition this
Friday will not affect service continuity and that existing trips, hours of operation, fares and vehicles will not change.
Chair-A-Van will be leaving a legacy in Niagara Falls that began as a grassroots effort in1977.
KaiT Bucht, a former executive director of St. John’s Niagara Falls unit, said it was started by board members Hector Lapierre and Vince Audibert, who remained very involved until their deaths.
The program continued to change and evolve over the decades but Bucht said it has always been committed to the community it serves.
She said she’s seen the program from both sides as an employee and as a client who used Chair-A-Van with her mother when she was terminally ill.
“It’s supposed to be curb to curb but I don’t know a driver that would let a little old lady with her groceries off on the corner and wouldn’t carry her groceries home or at least put them up on the top step for her,” she said.
“They’ve always gone above and beyond.”
Thomas Letourneau, a former chair of the board, said it was a busy operation that played a “tremendous role” in the community.
He said it really understood the requirements and needs of its clients.
“Drivers got to know the riders and who needed help and who didn’t. If somebody had to be picked up and everybody knew that that person needed help, we knew what driver to send so they could help. It was tightly knit, for sure.”