After 13 years, B.C. Transit is again allowing alcohol to be carried on buses in the capital region for Canada Day.
Previously, there was a prohibition on alcohol on Greater Victoria buses on July 1, even if it was unopened and in a bag. Open alcohol and alcohol consumption continue to be prohibited on B.C. Transit buses.
The transit agency announced Friday that it was amending the longstanding policy following “significant feedback” from people unhappy with the policy.
Khadoni Pitt Chambers, an equity researcher with the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria, said the policy was “ridiculous and restrictive” and ran the risk of treating transit users as second-class citizens.
“It’s such an arbitrary restriction, especially just having it be alcohol,” Chambers said. “Are you allowed to bring cigarettes or cannabis — which is also legal — or would those be searched as well?”
“If they want to get more people taking transit, and really disincentivize people from drinking and driving, we should be allowing people to take legal substances on transit,” Chambers said, adding that free transit and extended hours also would help people get around safely.
B.C. Transit buses in Greater Victoria will be running on a Sunday schedule on July 1, with extended late-night service until 2 a.m.
Travel on B.C. Transit buses is free in Campbell River and the Comox Valley on Canada Day.
The alcohol policy — controversial even then — was first instituted in 2009 with co-ordination with the City of Victoria and Victoria Police Department following challenging Canada Day experiences in the downtown core.
A B.C. Transit spokesperson said in 2009 that the policy helped curb rowdy behaviour at the Westshore bus exchange and the vandalism and violence that would often occur after the fireworks in the Inner Harbour.
Police often assisted with the enforcement of the policy, even though Victoria police were found to have overstepped their authority with certain searches and alcohol seizures on Canada Day in 2008 where they boarded transit buses to search passengers.
B.C. Transit said Friday that the policy was amended after “careful consideration” and communication with local police and employees.
“One of the general concerns is that people wanted the opportunity to travel safely to local, private celebrations with closed alcohol in their possession,” a statement provided to the Times Colonist said.
A steward with Unifor Local 333-BC, which represents the bus drivers with B.C. transit, declined an opportunity to comment on the policy change.
