City says it will take immediate steps to improve TTC safety in wake of violence
CBC
The city says it will take immediate steps this week to improve safety on the TTC after a string of assaults and stabbings left riders injured in recent weeks.
In a news release on Monday, the city says it will add more than 20 community safety ambassadors and more than 50 security guards to the transit system.
Community safety ambassadors will work with people experiencing homelessness and with Streets to Homes workers to provide outreach services. Security guards, meanwhile, have "daily experience dealing with underhoused people in crisis," the city said.
The guards also have training in mental health first aid, overdose prevention and non-violent crisis intervention.
With help from the city, the TTC will ensure its supervisors have de-escalation training to help them support station staff, the city added.
The TTC also says it's increased employee presence in hotspots throughout the system and during peak times.
"The TTC must be safe for everyone," Mayor John Tory said in the release.
"At my urging, City officials have been working with the TTC to provide any required support to help keep our transit system safe," Tory added.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.