The Desperately Broke STM Is Hacking Away At Its Costs... Again

The STM will continue to hack away at its costs with a goal of saving $18 million in 2023. If successful, these cuts would bring the transit company's deficit down to a mere $60 million.

So far, the STM says the spending reductions won't affect service. So customers wouldn't see changes to their bus or metro schedule this time around. Instead, the STM says it's focusing on non-recurring internal expenses.

The company already identified $18 million in expenses it could cut in 2022 through an evaluation of its operations and maintenance procedures.

"The STM's teams have worked hard to find ways to reduce expenses for 2023, while evaluating different scenarios to find recurring savings for years to come," STM Board of Directors Chair Éric Alan Caldwell said in a January 20 press release.

Despite what Caldwell called "the STM's rigour and willingness to find concrete solutions" to address its revenue shortfall, the service is still floundering. Pandemic-related emergency measures (recall that the metro and buses kept running at the height of the pandemic so that essential workers could actually get to work) and changes to commuting patterns have left it battered and in need of money. Meanwhile, it's also pursuing costly, long-awaited infrastructure projects, such as the extension of the blue line.

In 2022, the STM first raised the possibility of cuts to bus and metro services.

Caldwell suggested the solution to these budgetary woes will require a significant policy change.

"Despite all the efforts made, I reiterate the fundamental importance of revising the financing of public transit companies so that they can count on indexed and recurring sources of funding."