Increased enforcement, including arrests when merited, is necessary for cities to end disorder and restore transit systems to their primary purpose, the editorial board writes.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
In Ontario, transit officers are now able to arrest people for using illegal drugs on public transit. It’s not a panacea, but those added powers will be a useful tool that could help restore order to transit systems.
The new regulations, which rolled out on July 1, mean that transit special constables don’t need to bring in regular police officers to make drug arrests. Once the regulation is implemented locally, special constables on southern Ontario’s Metrolinx, Ottawa’s OC Transpo and the Toronto Transit Commission will be able to use the power.
Advocates for drug users and some addictions experts have panned the move, saying the arrests won’t be effective and risk further marginalizing drug users. It’s true that arrests on their own are just a small piece of the puzzle needed to stem the negative impacts from drug addiction, which often overlaps with homelessness and mental illness.
However, increased enforcement on transit, including arrests when merited, is necessary for cities to end disorder and restore their transit systems to their primary purpose of transportation, rather than continuing to allow them to morph into mobile shelters for troubled individuals.
Opponents fear that the changes will result in racial profiling and the targeting of individuals due to poverty, a legitimate concern that should be addressed through training and monitoring. However, allowing drug use to continue with little enforcement is not the answer. Drug users should be treated with compassion, but the impact on transit riders also needs to be taken into account.
Violent crime adds to that negative impact, with rates soaring on transit systems across the country since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. In many cities, the violence has dropped since its 2023 peak, but the rates are still higher than a decade ago. Only 58 per cent of TTC customers say they are currently satisfied with safety.
As a result, some riders with alternatives have switched to other modes of transport. TTC ridership is still at around 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels; revenue is down, while costs are up. Left unchecked, this pattern can result in a “transit death spiral,” where reduced fare revenue and lower ridership leads to reduced service. That can prompt other riders to leave, spurring further system shrinkage and boosting automobile traffic and pollution.
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Parks and libraries shouldn’t be allowed to devolve into shelters for people experiencing homelessness, addictions and mental health issues, and neither should buses, streetcars and subways. This is happening because housing, addiction and mental health agencies don’t have enough resources to address the mounting levels of need, resulting in “burden shifting” to other bureaucratic entities. More resources need to go toward solving the core problems, rather than allowing them to cascade throughout our cities.
Government and transit leaders are belatedly working to address these problems. In Montreal, Société de transport de Montréal (STM) brought in a ban on loitering at Metro stations. This has led to a 22-per-cent drop in service disruptions caused by “intentional disruptive behaviour.” The STM previously said that 60 per cent of its service disruptions were due to a small number of drug users and unhoused people.
A TTC pilot has added crisis workers to part of its subway system. The workers assist people experiencing mental health crises and substance use issues, connecting them with health and social supports. This is a worthy approach.
The Ontario government is currently ramping up its Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub strategy, which focuses on treatment and recovery. These facilities offer a possible path out of addiction. The province should track the centres’ outcomes to ensure the treatment is effective, and scale up the model across the province. Current resources are insufficient to meet the need.
Federal, provincial and municipal governments need to work together to create more housing for people after they leave treatment. Yes, it’s expensive, but by leaving people with little support, the costs often balloon as they are shifted onto hospitals, police and transit.
The harms of fentanyl and other addictions have ravaged our communities, resulting in tragic losses of life and devastation for thousands of families. Let’s not let addiction destroy our transit systems as well. Treatment and stable housing are needed, but stepped-up enforcement must also be part of the solution.