Saint John Transit will have extra time to find $250,000 in cuts in order to reduce its deficit.
Earlier in the year, Saint John Transit was facing a projected $1.2 million deficit, with the commission saying it had been hit hard by COVID-19.
Last month, they announced they had reduced the projected deficit to $500,000. The city’s finance committee asked the commission to halve that by its August 13 meeting.
At Thursday’s meeting, the commission asked for an extra few weeks to present those saving strategies as they await the findings of a service review from Stantec due in the next couple weeks.
The report is expected to offer a number of ways to increase efficiency and possible route changes in order to save money in the long-term.
Saint John Transit General Manager Marc Dionne said anything is on the table when it comes to potential cuts.
“We’ve spent a significant amount of money with Stantec to do an evaluation of transit, and we don’t want to be making changes every month or every two months,” Dionne said.
With the loosening of provincial COVID-19 restrictions, and what Saint John Transit has called good participation in its requirement of masks when travelling on the bus, the service is considering upping its capacity to allow more people on the bus.
Transit commission chair Trish Ellsworth says that likely won’t be enough to bring numbers up to pre-pandemic levels. She reported that as services have resumed, they have noticed a sustained drop-off in users attempting to access the service.
“I want to put a bit of forewarning, even if we increase (capacity) a bit, the people may not be there,” said Ellsworth.
The Stantec report is expected this month and the transit commission will present its deficit reduction strategy to the finance committee in September.
