The provincial government will begin a review of BC Transit as part of the Province’s ongoing commitment to review all major Crown corporations.

Government wants to ensure Crowns are making every effort to keep controllable costs to a minimum, and the review process provides an external perspective that helps identify opportunities for improvement. The current review - to be conducted by the Ministry of Finance - will examine and make recommendations on all aspects of BC Transit’s operations, planning, forecasting, and financial performance including:

• Human resources, partner agreements, and procurement;
• Fiscal forecasting and service-level planning, including ridership, scheduling and capacity; and
• Revenue, debt, cost mitigation, capital assets and other financial performance aspects.

The review will also take into account BC Transit’s current service plan and funding levels and may make recommendations to help BC Transit achieve cost savings and ensure BC Transit’s operations reflect the greatest cost benefit and efficiency for taxpayers. The review is expected to conclude in early 2016.

The B.C. Government created the Crown Corporation in 1979 as the Urban Transit Authority (UTA), whose role was to work in partnership with local governments in the development and management of local transit systems. The organization was renamed BC Transit in 1982.

Since the creation of the UTA, the public transit system managed by BC Transit has grown from 13 to 81 transit systems delivered with 58 local funding partners. BC Transit has a forecast operating budget of $103.9 million in 2015-16, and a forecast capital budget of $73.5 million. Since 2001, transit service across B.C. has increased by more than 40%, and the Province has provided more than $1 billion in operating and capital funding to BC Transit.

Since 2012, government has conducted Crown reviews of Community Living B.C., ICBC, Partnerships B.C., and BC Lottery Corp. BC Hydro was reviewed in 2011.

A backgrounder follows.

Media Contacts:

Jamie Edwardson
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance
250 356-2821

BACKGROUNDER BC

Transit Crown Review Terms of Reference

The purpose of the review is to examine BC Transit’s operations, planning and forecasting, and financial performance. The review will take into account BC Transit’s current service plan and funding levels.

BC Transit’s governance structure and processes are excluded from this review as there was an independent review completed in 2012 with recommendations for enhancement.

The review will evaluate and, as appropriate, make recommendations relating to the following:

1. BC Transit’s operations, including:
   • agreements and relationships with its partners and clients;
   • procurement, including fuel, operating supplies and capital assets; and
   • human resources strategies.
2. Assess BC Transit’s Planning and Forecasting, including:
   • reliability of fiscal forecasts to help plan, budget and manage costs; and
   • service level planning, including ridership, scheduling and capacity utilization.
3. BC Transit’s financial performance, including:
   • operating costs, administrative costs, employee compensation and incentive programs;
   • cost mitigation strategies, including the identification of potential operating efficiencies;
   • revenue generation;
   • debt and financial management; and
   • capital asset management and utilization.
4. Examine other matters that may arise over the course of the review deemed appropriate by the review team.

Where identified, the report may make recommendations to achieve cost savings and to ensure cost benefit and efficiency are considered in resource utilization.

Media Contacts:

Jamie Edwardson
Communications Director
Ministry of Finance
250 356-2821