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    1. Bus
    2. Paratransit

    City of Edmonton audit finds Edmonton Transit Service partially met DATS goal

    Feb. 20, 2025
    The city determined ETS could improve the service’s eligibility assessment process, privacy controls, contract management practices, strategic planning, data quality and training.
    Related To: City of Edmonton
    City of Edmonton
    A recent audit report found ETS could improve the service’s eligibility assessment process, privacy controls, contract management practices, strategic planning, data quality and training.
    A recent audit report found ETS could improve the service’s eligibility assessment process, privacy controls, contract management practices, strategic planning, data quality and training.

    A city of Edmonton, Alberta,-led audit report found the Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) partially met the goal of managing dedicated accessible transit service (DATS) effectively and efficiently. 

    DATS, which had a budget of $32 million for 2024, provides door-to-door public transit service for people with physical or cognitive disabilities that prevent them from using conventional transit. 

    The city determined ETS could improve the service’s eligibility assessment process, privacy controls, contract management practices, strategic planning, data quality and training. 

    Members of the city of Edmonton Council’s audit committee discussed the report at a meeting. 

    The report said that “continuously improving the effectiveness of DATS will help ETS to better fulfill DATS’ mission of providing industry-leading, sustainable and rider-focused paratransit service to the Edmonton community.” 

    The audit report notes DATS has several strengths, including a clearly defined mission, with 93 percent of trips taken in 2023 being delivered on time, but the service should address weak privacy controls affecting some city employees, update training materials and improve data quality and contract management. 

    According to the audit, DATS was monitoring whether contractors met some performance standards but did not penalize those that came up short. The audit also uncovered invoicing errors, one of which resulted in the city underpaying a contractor by approximately $40,000. 

    Two of the recommendations related to the service improving strategic planning, with the audit report saying DATS lacks clear goals, targets, a formal risk assessment and service model review. 

    While the audit report said many aspects of the DATS team’s eligibility assessment process followed best practices, its procedures had not been updated since 2018, and staff were not using them. The auditor recommended ETS update and use documented assessment guidelines for making eligibility decisions — and formally review decisions — to ensure DATS provides fair and consistent access to people who need it. 

     

    Recommendations accepted 

    Self Advocacy Federation Advocacy Manager Keri McEachern said DATS riders were happy with the service’s new online booking tool and customer service, but driver training remains an improvement area. 

    She said riders have reported being told they cannot bring groceries and packages on board. 

    “Not everybody has regular interactions with people with disabilities,” McEachern said.  

    ETS has accepted all of the auditor’s recommendations. 

    “All the actions associated with the recommendations are completely feasible to be done by the end of this year and many of them are underway already,” said Edmonton Acting Deputy City Manager of City Operations Craig McKeown.