Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit (SMART)

Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit (SMART) was incorporated in 1980 by private individuals to provide public transit service to passengers with disabilities. Control of the corporation was eventually taken over by local municipalities. The Ombudsman found that SMART was not incorporated pursuant to the provisions in the Municipal Act, 2001, which permit municipalities to create municipal services corporations, because the Municipal Act, 2001 did not exist at the time SMART was incorporated.

The Ombudsman reviewed a complaint about Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit (SMART), a corporation controlled by 10 member municipalities. The Ombudsman found that SMART is a joint local board of the member municipalities because it provides public transit service to passengers with disabilities, which is a service that is integral to the daily operations of a municipality. In certain circumstances, municipal services corporations are deemed not to be local boards by O. Reg. 599/06. However, the provision only applies where a municipality “uses or expects to use” at least one of the enumerated powers in O. Reg. 599/06. The Ombudsman found that SMART’s member municipalities do not exercise any of the enumerated powers and therefore, the deeming provision does not apply to SMART.