A Winnipeg woman is speaking out about the city’s Handi-Transit services.

It comes as a committee debated renewing agreements with two private contractors who provide a portion of the services.

Contracts some wanted put on hold until a complaint filed about the system is cleared up by the Manitoba Ombudsman.

Concerns about Handi-Transit are nothing new for Kim Kroeker.

“I feel like I was humiliated,” she said, referring to an incident which unfolded earlier this week.

Kroeker lives with cerebral palsy, walks with crutches and uses the service to get to and from work.

She usually gets picked up in a car provided by Handi-Transit operators which she can walk to on her own and sit down in before she needs assistance positioning her legs inside the vehicle.

Kroeker usually gets help from a driver but this past Wednesday she didn't.

"He complained about me because I required assistance in the vehicle,” said Kroeker. "I said, 'Well drivers have been assisting me for 30 years and I need to get to work.’”

“I said, ‘Why did you send me this vehicle if the driver cannot assist me.’”

The city of Winnipeg said the driver didn't do anything wrong.

Its policy states, "drivers are not trained to provide any type of specialized attendant assistance which may include body positioning.”

Kroeker doesn’t understand why that is when she’s had other people help her into cars without specialized training.

"All I'm trying to do is get to work just like any other citizen in the city of Winnipeg,” she said.

Kroeker isn't alone when it comes to concerns about Handi-Transit.

In February 2016, the Independent Living Resource Centre filed a complaint with the Manitoba Ombudsman that the city has operated a Handi-Transit system in a manner which is "unreasonable, oppressive and improperly discriminatory"

“There’s many people who have issues with the system,” said ILRC government and community relations representative Allen Mankewich. “And the city’s looking at locking in another seven years of potentially sub-par and, in some ways, dangerous conditions for people.”

“Rider safety’s a concern, the operational policies of Handi-Transit are a concern. There’s a lack of governance, in some ways, with the system.”

Handi-Transit is delivered by private contractors for the city.

The centre wanted the city to hold off on locking in to those long-term Handi-Transit contracts until the Ombudsman’s report on the issue is released.

Despite the concerns a committee approved two seven-year contracts worth a total of $17 million which account for 15 per cent of Winnipeg's Handi-Transit services.

"At the end of the day we've got to get these people service,” said city councillor Matt Allard, the chairperson of the infrastructure and public works committee. “We don't have the Ombudsman report in front of us, as soon as we have it I know I'll be taking a look at it and checking in with our admin to see what we can do to better our service."

As for Kroeker, the city said a bus or a van could provide her service instead of a car but she doesn't want that.

"I feel like I have to keep justifying my disability, my eligibility for this city service."

The city said while Handi-Transit drivers may have provided body positioning assistance to passengers in the past, there is no expectation for drivers to do so.

The Manitoba Ombudsman said a draft report has already been provided to the city of Winnipeg for review and that it expects the city to respond to the report by late fall.

Once that happens, the report can be released but there’s no exact timeline on when that will happen.