Good evening Councillor Jellett,
Enough is enough.
My wife and I have suffered through these 41 days of no transit service and yet this is the first time we have written to our councillor, Member of Parliament or an ATU union representative. Why? Because we have (or rather had) faith in our city government and the union to keep the interests of the citizens of Ottawa front and centre in this debate. Clearly, that has not been the case.
We began this stoppage of what we consider an essential service by blaming the union and backing the city. While we still blame the union and the senior drivers for taking the city and our most vulnerable hostage, we lately have become frustrated with the city's ambivalence towards binding arbitration and the refusal to remove the scheduling issue from the bargaining table, however temporary. A cynic, Mr. Jellett, would accuse the city of stonewalling in order to reap the maximum financial benefit while the buses remain off the road. We know Mayor O'Brien has no incentive to get the buses running again - he walks to work (at least I hope he does) and the 3-million dollar per week savings looks good in the city coffers. The union bosses really don't give a toss about what happens - their senior drivers will be protected from any layoffs due to seniority and life will go on, raises and choice of shifts intact. Meanwhile, the poor, elderly, and otherwise disadvantaged population of Orléans and Ottawa continue to suffer through a harsh and unforgiving winter, while the union and the city act like children arguing over control of the sandbox in the playground.
We moved to Ottawa from Nova Scotia three years ago. We moved here partly because of the availability of public transit, something we had never had the advantage of using in any of our previous places of residence. We took pride in promoting Ottawa and indeed its transit system to anyone who would listen. We considered both the city and our public transit system to be models for the rest of Canada.
No more. I only talk about our city, our municipal government, and our transit system in negative terms now, as no-one seems to have the ability, skill, or incentive to get things running again. While Councillor Doucet may have spoken out of turn, at least he had the courage to do so and to generate discussion. The city, Mr. Jellett, is on the verge of running off of the high road and it won't be long before you're no better than Mr. Cornellier and the rest of the union management. That is an unfortunate state of affairs, and does not bode well for the future.
I plead with you to do whatever you can to bring this needless and idiotic strike to a close before more people lose their jobs, suffer from a lack of medical treatment, miss their education, are involved in traffic accidents, or suffer the other effects of this dispute. Our livelihoods, as well as the reputation of the city and our entire municipal government hangs in the balance.
Sincerely,
