• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / City Hall / Halifax Transit operator taken to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, Sackville Terminal closed

Halifax Transit operator taken to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, Sackville Terminal closed

July 6, 2020 By Zane Woodford Leave a Comment

A Halifax transit bus at the Sackville Terminal, March 18, 2020. Photo: Yvette d’Entremont

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free.

One Halifax Transit driver was taken to hospital Monday morning after feeling COVID-19 symptoms, two other drivers were being tested, and the Sackville Terminal was temporarily closed.

Ken Wilson, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508, the union representing Halifax Transit operators, confirmed the news, first reported by CBC’s Brett Ruskin on Twitter, to the Halifax Examiner.

“I received correspondence from the employer around 7:45 this morning that a transit operator at the Sackville Terminal was experiencing COVID-19 symptoms — shortness of breath, tightness in chest,” Wilson said in an interview.

The driver called himself an ambulance and two other drivers stayed with him. The driver feeling symptoms was taken to hospital by EHS, and the two drivers who stayed with him were relieved of their duties for the day.

One had been tested and the other was still waiting to be tested at about 10 a.m., according to Wilson.

The bus has been taken back to the depot for cleaning. Wilson was unsure which route the operator was driving, but believes he was just starting his day.

“As far as I’m aware, no passengers were involved so that tells me he wasn’t in service yet for the day,” Wilson said.

Halifax Transit tweeted just after 9a.m. that the Sackville Terminal was temporarily closed.

“What I find odd is that they closed the Sackville Terminal for cleaning but they didn’t close the operators’ lobby at Ragged Lake, which is where the operator worked out of,” Wilson said.

He said he asked Halifax Transit to clean that lobby and was told there was no need.

The Halifax Examiner has asked the municipality why the Ragged Lake depot wasn’t closed, and we will update this story with the response.

Update — July 6 at 12:30p.m.:

At about noon, Halifax Transit tweeted that the Sackville Terminal had reopened.

Municipal spokesperson Erin DiCarlo said in an email:

The Sackville terminal was temporarily closed as a precautionary measure. In situations where a municipal employee discloses he or she feels unwell, we follow internal protocols which includes an assessment of where the employee was and what contact they had with other employees, public spaces and work spaces that may require additional cleaning regimes.

The municipality will not be releasing specifics about any employee who may test positive for COVID-19 as part of our updated protocol, in consultation with public health.

If a municipal employee tests positive, public health will be in contact with the individual and will complete contact tracing to identify all those who have been in close contact. If public health’s investigation determines a public notification is needed, they will issue.

The municipality will continue to internally advise staff of any positive test results within their respective business unit/facility/division and will follow all public health cleaning recommendations to help reduce the spread of the virus.


The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible; please subscribe.

Some people have asked that we additionally allow for one-time donations from readers, so we’ve created that opportunity, via the PayPal button below. We also accept e-transfers, cheques, and donations with your credit card; please contact iris “at” halifaxexaminer “dot” ca for details.

Thank you!




Filed Under: City Hall, Featured, News Tagged With: Brett Ruskin, bus driver, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, Erin DiCarlo, Halifax Transit, Ken Wilson, pandemic, Sackville Terminal

About Zane Woodford

Zane Woodford covers municipal politics for the Halifax Examiner. Email: [email protected]; Twitter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • Weekend File May 21, 2022
  • Last week tied the record for weekly COVID deaths in Nova Scotia May 20, 2022
  • National study to assess pandemic’s health impacts, potential long-term effects of COVID-19 May 19, 2022
  • NSTU president concerned about conflict as province announces end to mask mandate in schools May 19, 2022
  • Royal flush: the monarchy’s role in reconciliation and Canada today May 19, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022