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Ottawa’s auditor general has found that OC Transpo is chronically overspending on overtime, as outdated paper-based timekeeping allows some employees to work beyond legally mandated hours.
The review looked at overtime spending in 2024 and 2025. Of about $132 million in overtime spending citywide during that period, one-third, or $44.4 million, came from three branches at OC Transpo.
“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,” said the review, released by Auditor General Nathalie Gougeon’s office on Monday.
The staffing shortages in some areas are significant. OC Transpo is short 57 licensed mechanics in fleet maintenance, according to the review, while there are also shortages in bus and rail operations.
The review said overtime is being used as a tool to address the maintenance backlog. It said those employees are being offered double time for overtime shifts.
Overtime spending shot up in 2025 in particular. Bus and Para Transpo operations overshot their overtime budget by $4.1 million that year, while overtime for transit fleet maintenance was $5.6 million overbudget.
“Management has not only been relying on overtime, they are continuing, year-after-year, to inadequately budget for overtime,” the review said.
It warned that consistent use of overtime raises the risk of higher costs, burnout and low productivity, as well as high employee turnover.
Drivers, maintenance staff pulling long hours
Gougeon’s office said part of the problem stems from outdated manual processes for time reporting that limit efficiency, increase the risk of error and make it hard to monitor overtime.
In fleet maintenance, for example, employees submit paper sign-up sheets and timesheets to supervisors.
That sometimes makes it tough to track whether employees were exceeding legally mandated maximums for hours of service. For example, operators can’t drive after 14 hours on shift or after working 70 hours in a seven-day period.
The rules are supposed to prevent fatigue and ensure road safety. They also apply to maintenance staff. With no automatic tracking, in some cases it’s up to employees to confirm they’re compliant.
While no bus drivers or diesel rail operators exceeded the maximum, the review did find violations for seven per cent of electric rail operators and 23 per cent of maintenance staff.
“Management has indicated that because of the manual nature of time reporting, it is difficult to proactively track and manage compliance with the requirements,” said the review.
Bus drivers are also pulling long hours, with about half working more than 130 hours in a bi-weekly period.
Overall, the review found “limited monitoring of overtime.” There were cases where the review found no evidence that a supervisor actually approved a timesheet, raising the risk of time theft or waste. In other cases, there were signs that employees were overpaid.
It’s even possible for staff to sign up for the same shift at different garages. Since the process is manual, that won’t automatically get flagged, and the employee will miss one of their shifts.
In many cases, Gougeon’s review could not find any documented rationale for why overtime was offered or how management decided who to offer it to.
Gougeon urged OC Transpo to make better use of technology to reduce the administrative burden and strengthen controls.
She also recommendend it better document the rationale for overtime, use systems to flag hours of service violations before awarding overtime shifts, and ensure that all timesheets are approved by supervisors.
OC Transpo management accepted all of her recommendations.