July 7, 2025
Premier David Eby is urging us all to “buy B.C., buy Canadian” and commits his government to “buying Canadian first.” So you might think that crucial public services would be at the top of that buy-Canadian list.
Yet in Metro Vancouver, one of those services – HandyDART, which serves seniors and people with disabilities – is operated by Transdev: a giant French corporation. And American corporations are already circling, as Transdev’s contract is expiring.
But that could change soon. TransLink’s board of directors was expected to vote to either operate HandyDART in-house with public sector workers – “insourcing” – or contract out again (likely to a foreign company) at their June meeting. Now the decision has been delayed, apparently to give Eby’s government time to study the issue. The choice ought to be clear. Instead of paying senior managers and wealthy investors in other countries, every part of TransLink should be staffed and run by people working here in B.C.
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