Ottawa auditor finds OC Transpo spent $44 million on overtime in two years, driven by staff shortages

Ottawa's auditor general released a review of city overtime spending in September 2026, finding the transit department that runs OC Transpo spent $44,414,524 in overtime from January 2024 to December 2025. That is 36 percent of all overtime spending across the City of Ottawa during that period, according to the Office of the Auditor General of Ottawa.

The city spent $61.7 million on overtime in 2024 and $70.3 million in 2025 across all departments, according to data cited in the report. The review notes those figures are based on data from Finance and Corporate Services and have not been independently verified for accuracy.

Why OC Transpo depends so heavily on overtime

The review identifies persistent staffing problems as the main cause. The fleet maintenance branch is short 57 licensed mechanics because of an industry-wide shortage in finding and keeping qualified staff. There are also shortages of bus and rail operators. The aging fleet requires more maintenance, and the opening of O-Train Lines 2 and 4 created new training requirements that take longer to complete.

The review covers three branches within the Transit Services Department. Bus and Para Transit Operations, which manages over 1,500 bus operators, ran overtime that exceeded budget in every year from 2021 to 2025. Transit Fleet Maintenance, which oversees over 730 buses and 80 Para Transpo minibuses, ran overtime that exceeded its budget by $5,635,515 in 2025 alone. Rail Operations ran under budget in 2025 for the first time in the five-year period reviewed.

What the auditor found when testing overtime transactions

The auditor tested samples of overtime transactions in each branch against three questions: was there a documented reason for the overtime, was it offered to staff based on seniority as the collective agreement requires, and was it properly approved.

In Bus Operations, 25 percent of the sample had no evidence the overtime was offered based on seniority. In Fleet Maintenance, 42 percent of the sample had no documentation showing overtime was offered by seniority. The collective agreement for bus and rail operators states that overtime work deemed necessary to maintain city efficiency must be booked on a seniority basis.

On timesheet approvals, 26 percent of the Fleet Maintenance sample had no evidence of supervisory sign-off. In Rail Operations, 7 percent of the sample contained a discrepancy between the hours an employee was paid and the hours they actually worked, meaning those employees were overpaid for that shift.

Hours-of-service violations in fleet maintenance

The review found that 23 percent of Fleet Maintenance overtime transactions reviewed contained Hours of Service violations. These rules cap how long mechanics who work on commercial vehicles can stay on duty before taking mandatory rest. The rules also require that an operator cannot drive after being on duty for 14 hours in a day, and must have at least 10 hours off duty in every 24-hour period.

In Bus Operations, the auditor found no Hours of Service violations in the sample, but 50 percent of employees in the sample worked more than 130 hours in a two-week pay period, which is the threshold the collective agreement sets before an employee cannot take further overtime unless no qualified alternative is available.

In Rail Operations, 7 percent of the sample had Hours of Service violations for electric rail operators.

Management agreed with all 10 recommendations

OC Transpo management agreed with all 10 recommendations in the review. The most immediate steps are a directive requiring supervisors to sign all timesheets before hours are entered into the payroll system, estimated for completion by the fourth quarter of 2026. Changes to scheduling software to automatically flag potential Hours of Service violations before an overtime shift is approved are estimated for completion by the fourth quarter of 2027. A review of whether the seniority-based overtime system is fair and equitable will be assessed during the next round of collective bargaining, estimated for the fourth quarter of 2028.

Residents can read the full report at oagottawa.ca. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who won re-election on October 26, has committed to a $95 monthly transit pass and a $10 billion infrastructure investment. His promises on transit are tracked at the Ottawa promise tracker.