Auditor general finds 'significant issues' with OC Transpo overtime

OC Transpo LRT testing near Blair Road and the 174 in a recent photo. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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OC Transpo general manager Rick Leary said the reliance on overtime is “a symptom of broader operational challenges” after the city’s auditor general found “significant issues” with the transit authority’s persistent use of overtime to address staffing shortages.

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Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon’s office found that the reliance on overtime “has become a significant and ongoing part of OC Transpo’s operations, largely due to persistent staffing shortages and the challenges of maintaining an aging fleet.”

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The auditor general launched the review of overtime practices across all city departments after receiving tips on the City of Ottawa’s fraud and waste hotline. Gougeon and her team reviewed overtime hours worked in 2024 and 2025 and found the city incurred $61.7 million in overtime expenses in 2024 and another $70.3 million in 2025.

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Of that $132 million spent across all city departments, the “more significant issues related to overtime were found in OC Transpo,” which spent $44.4 million on overtime during those two years, Gougeon said.

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That accounted for 36 per cent of all the overtime incurred across the city in 2024 and 2025, the audit report says. That’s more than the next two biggest spenders combined: Emergency and protective services accounted for $23.5 million (17.8 per cent), and road works operations at the public works department accounted for $18.7 million (14 per cent).

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“Occasional overtime can help meet short-term demands and is more cost-effective or efficient in situations where there is unpredictability or seasonality to the work,” Gougeon told committee members. “However, reliance on overtime as a mechanism to manage staff shortages in regular operations is not sustainable in the long run. It often leads to higher costs, burnout, reduced productivity, quality issues, and increased employee turnover.”

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The report also found a “significant reliance” on manually tracking overtime hours on paper, rather than by electronic means, which resulted in “limited monitoring” of the overtime procedure.

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That “paper-based” system was particularly prevalent among the fleet maintenance crew at OC Transpo’s garages.

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The manual logging of overtime “limits efficiency, increases the risk of error and misuse of overtime, and makes monitoring of overtime very difficult,” Gougeon said. “Greater use of technology and system functionality would help improve decision-making, reduce administrative burden and strengthen controls to further ensure prudent use of public funds.”

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In a presentation to the audit committee on Nov. 3, audit principal Rhea Khanna illustrated how the city’s transit services department has consistently overspent on its budgeted overtime since 2021.

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The combined actual overtime spending for bus and Para Transpo operations, fleet maintenance and rail operations was $5.25 million more than was budgeted for in 2021; it was $6.2 million over budget in 2022, $7.1 million over budget in 2023, $6.7 million over budget in 2024 and $9.1 million over budget in 2025.