Has Burlington Transit outsourced some of the HandiVan

By Pepper Parr

April 29^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

It is accepted by most people that there is a shortage of Handi Vans in Burlington.

These buses are a door-to-door service offered by Burlington Transit to people with disabilities. The service is available to registered customers who are unable to use a conventional bus.

These are the vehicles that transport people with disabilities from where they live to where they want to go, be it a doctor’s appointment, a visit to a family member, or to do some shopping.

The van holds about xxx people and have ramps that make it possible for people with wheel chairs to embark and disembark.

When a Handi-Van is needed, the customer calls Burlington Transit and explains where they want to go, often as much as two weeks before the transportation is needed.

People apply to use this form of transit by completing the specialized transit application. The form has to be signed by their doctor.  How they get to the doctor to have the form signed when they don’t have access to the Handi-Van service is something they figure out.

Handi-Van schedulers are available Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding holidays.

The customers know the people in the xxx department very well – they have been talking to each other for years.

The service works, but it means there is an awful lot of waiting around, which is the life of those who are disabled.

We will return to the Handi-Van service and its limitations.

The transit people are looking for ways to create a transit service that is not confined to buses running specific transit routes.  They are looking for small buses that would work as an on-demand service for specific parts of the city.  Funds were allocated for the Transit service to prepare for a study that would xxxx

Argo, a privately owned company located in Brantford, is a service that uses electrically propelled buses to transport people.  They have a computer application that allows people to log n and request transportation.  The user gets a response, and the closest Argo bus picks them up.  That is a simplification of how the Argo system works.

The problem with the Argo system is that it takes control of who people call transit service out of the hands of the city transit service.

At some point, the city may decide they want to outsource that service – but that is not a decision that has been made.

One of the Argo buses was on display at a recent transportation and transit event hosted by Councillors Sharman and Kearns.

The Gazette recently met with a Burlington Senior who has been using the HandiVan service for more than a decade.

On March 18^th this person was picked up by an Argo bus that was returning to her John Street address from the Mandarin restaurant.  It took an hour and 20 minutes to complete the trip.  One could walk the distance in that amount of time.

On April 21^st, this person took an Argo bus from Burlington Centre to her John Street residence.  This person concluded tat the driver of the Argo bus did not know the city very well.

Our question is:  Why do people requiring HandiVan service find themselves being moved around by an Argo bus?

Does the city have a working agreement with Argo that has not been made public?

Who is covering any of the liability insurance needed?

There are more questions that answers on this issue.