If the longest public transit strike in Ottawa’s history and its aftermath has taught the residents of Ottawa anything it is that city council is too fractured and parochial to manage public transit for our city.

On the first day back from the strike, we’ve learned that an administrative error in scheduling had OC Transpo pay 85 bus-drivers overtime. Forgive my ignorance but wasn’t the strike about who could manage scheduling better – the city or the union?

In my neighbourhood, the 131 runs nearly empty at the best of times, but at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, there it was running on the first day back from the bus strike. However, my express bus (39) that I need to travel to and from work was nowhere to be seen the following Monday morning. I would have thought that scheduling express routes when thousands of people are commuting to work is a better option than a local route when thousands of people are asleep. In fact, I know residents in my neighbourhood would prefer their 39 back sooner than April 6 rather than an empty 131 back today.

More alarming, we’ve learned that during the 53 days strike, OC Transpo spent $300,000 on gas. Since the buses were not running, all this wasted money served no purpose except to emit more greenhouse gas emissions. Not surprisingly, the city is in debt of more than $12 million rather than their projected savings of $3 million a week. However, this is not all of the untold costs associated with the strike. According to the Sprott School of Business, commuters are out of pocket somewhere in the neighbourhood of $97 million in gas, parking, increased vehicle maintenance etc. To make matters even worse, all of these costs come before we know what kind of settlement we are going to get with ATU and the untold costs to businesses.

In Orléans, where more than 30 per cent of commuters rely on OC Transpo, sadly, we are not getting our main express buses for weeks and months. Since we are the most dedicated transit riders in Ottawa, perhaps we are viewed as apathetic and expendable. Clearly, it’s time for a fresh start and an independent transit authority.