COVID-19 and Municipal Intracity Transit in Canada (2020)

By Casey August

In order to slow the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, Canadian provincial and municipal governments imposed restrictions on their public transit services. One of the most visible forms of restriction was mandatory masking, which was introduced in most municipalities. This page will focus on how these restrictions affected city buses and subway networks in each of the Canadian provincees and territories. Focus will be on one or two major cities for each province or territory. The specifics of each province/territory/city's COVID-19 transit restrictions will be discussed, as well as how said restrictions have been enforced.

In Nunavut, there was no public transit system from 2005 onwards, due to budget cuts and low ridership. Nunavut's government reportedly intended to revive public transit via a 'Transportation Master Plan' by the end of 2020, but so far those plans seem to have been put on hold, likely to COVID-19. As such, Nunavut will not feature in this discussion.

In Yellowknife, NWT, restrictions came into effect on August 31, 2020, which made it mandatory for public bus passengers to wear face masks. Enforcement was light, taking an educational signage-based approach rather than enforcing penalties.

In Whitehorse, Yukon, transit passengers started being required to wear masks on public transit on November 23, 2020, with some exceptions. No fines were issued for those who refused to comply with the new rules, with Mayor Dan Curtis asking even those who questioned the efficacy of masking to "just humour us."

In Nova Scotia, face masks became required on public transit and other public spaces on July 31 , 2020. Most transit passengers initially seem to have complied with masking rules, with some seeing compliance as a public good and others viewing it as a hindrance that they nonetheless followed to curb the spread of the pandemic; in general, masking was not enforced but encouraged. There are several instances of people refusing to wear masks on buses, which in November 2020 led two Halifax bus drivers to refuse to work due to the presence of maskless passengers creating an unsafe work environment. According to president of the Halifax branch of the Amalgamated Transit Union Ken Wilson, only 10% of bus passengers were refusing to wear masks.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the St. John's Transportation Commission introduced pandemic restrictions to their Metrobus system on August 24, 2020, as part of a larger push to make mask-wearing mandatory in indoor spaces: passengers were required to wear masks on public transit, to enter and exit buses via the back door, and to remain seated while on the bus to help maintain a physical distance of 6 feet between passengers. While earlier limits imposed in March had capped the maximum number of passengers on a single bus to nine, the new restrictions raised the limit to a bus's seated capacity. In anticipation of these new restrictions, a small anti-masking protest was held in front of the city's Confederation Building on August 20, with demonstrators arguing that the new masking policy was "medical tyrrany" and would make those who chose not to wear masks into pariahs.

In New Brunswick, the cities of Moncton, Frederickton and St. John began requiring Codiac Transpo passengers to wear masks on June 29 , 2020, which was done to allow buses to increase their passenger capacity to 50%. Aisle seats were also closed off to better enforce physical distancing. Bus drivers were instructed to assume that passengers who boarded without a mask had a medical condition which exempted them from the masking rules. While most Codiac Transpo passengers seem to have complied with the new restrictions, some customers reported that they were the only ones wearing a mask.

Masks became required on public transit in Prince Edward Island much later, on November 20, 2020, a state of affairs which was planned to continue until February 15, 2021, or until growing infection rates outside the 'Atlantic Bubble' of PEI, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, and New Brunswick calmed down. Similar to other provinces, those who did not comply with masking rules were not penalised with fines, and young children and those with medical conditions preventing them from wearing masks were exempted; however, Dr. Heather Morrison - the province's chief medical officer - insisted that there were few medical conditions that could reasonably prevent someone from wearing a mask.

In Montreal, Quebec, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) started recommending that passengers wear masks on public transit on April 28, 2020, while encouraging that STM employees do so as well to serve as an example to others. On July 13, wearing a mask became mandatory for all passengers ages 10 or older. Two weeks later, on July 27 STM employees were required to prevent those not wearing a mask from using transit services, though no fines were levied from those who broke masking rules, and transit union leaders refused to become "mask police." By September, the STM was reporting a 95-99% rate of compliance to mandatory masking. Compliance was not universal, however, and in several cases a passenger's noncompliance with masking rules led to a physical altercation, sometimes with an STM employee attempting to enforce masking and sometimes with another passenger attempting to do the same.

In Ontario, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) began requiring passengers and TTC employees to wear masks on transit vehicles on July 2, 2020, though as in Yellowknife, the compliance was to be enforced via education rather than punitive measures. An official audit from July reported 90% compliance to the new rules, the data for which was gathered at high-traffic TTC stations. An earlier TTC press release from March 18 had permitted TTC employees to wear masks if they chose to do so, while maintaining the position of Toronto Public Health (TPH) that healthy passengers should be discouraged from wearing masks, arguing that mask-wearing increased the likelihood of infection due to increased face-touching. Considering that masks were later made mandatory, it seems that TPH eventually changed its tune. In London, ON, one instance of a person refusing to wear a mask went viral when footage of a woman assaulting a London Transit Commission employee who was attempting to enforce masking rules was posted to instagram; the woman was later arrested.

In Manitoba, masks became mandatory on Winnipeg Transit buses on August 29, 2020. While drivers were instructed not to refuse service to maskless passengers, a fine of $100 CAD was implemented to deter noncompliance. Most passengers seem to have followed the rules, as the Amalgamated Transit Union and City auditors have estimated a 90% compliance rate as of September 10.

In Saskatchewan, the cities of Regina and Prince Albert began requiring face masks on public transit on August 31, 2020. Masking was not enforced, however, though Regina Mayor Michael Fougere did on multiple occasions, including once in September, call on bus passengers to wear masks, citing an instance when a COVID-infected person rode as a passenger over the course of a week without wearing a mask. On October 28, Regina Transit started conducting random checks of their buses, asking those who were not wearing masks to leave the bus.

In Alberta, Calgary Transit began implementing mandatory masking on buses and CTrains via a new bylaw on August 1, 2020. On August 17, previous seating limits on public transit were rescinded, possibly due to a reported 95% compliance rate for CTrain passengers and about 80-85% compliance for bus passengers. Edmonton also introduced mandatory masking on August 1 for people on board Edmonton Transit Service city buses and LRT trains. While penalties were not initially used to enforce the bylaw, eventually a $100 fine was added. Enforcement was difficult, however. In some cases, those refusing to wear a mask - often after having been offered them one - were either fined or physically removed from the bus due to the person refusing to leave after having been asked to do so. Despite this, Edmonton compliance rates sat at 96% on public transit as of September 17.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, passengers on all TransLink vehicles became required to wear masks as of August 24, 2020, with special cards given to those who qualified for an exemption. On September 2nd, TransLink reported that 92% of passengers were wearing masks, a massive increase from 40% prior to the introduction of mandatory masking. On November 27, Translink announced that wearing masks was now also required at all TransLink stops. Moreover, the Metro Vancouver Transit Police, which had been entrusted with enforcing masking rules in August, were now permitted to issue $230 fines to noncompliant passengers. Exemption cards were no longer considered effective, as Transit Police officers were now to decide exemptions on a case-by-case basis. Despite the high compliance rate, it seems that physical altercations sometimes ensued when a passenger was not wearing a mask; sometimes, passengers would try to enforce masking themselves, in one case attempting to physically force a passenger to wear a mask. Unsurprisingly, Translink discourages customers from stepping in themselves to enforce masking.

All of these examples share similar elements. In general, masking compliance rates were high on public transit, despite what in many cases were lax enforcement policies. Even in cities or provinces where fines were introduced as a punitive measure, Canadian transit agencies' modus operandi seems to have been about educating passengers about the benefits of masking and in some cases providing masks to those who did not have one. What is clear is that although compliance rates were high, the few examples of noncompliance were associated with confrontation and sometimes physical altercation when a person refused to wear a mask on public transit. In some cases, it was the maskless person who initiated violence; in at least one case, it was another passenger.

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