With Ottawa's bus system strikebound, city officials hope to force union members to vote on a contract offer.With Ottawa's bus system strikebound, city officials hope to force union members to vote on a contract offer. (CBC)

Labour Minister Rona Ambrose is expected to respond as early as this week to Ottawa's request to force a vote by striking transit union members on the city's latest contract offer.

The federal minister and her cabinet colleague, Transport Minister John Baird, are currently evaluating the situation and what the government's response may be to bring the strike to a conclusion, said Baird's press secretary, Chris Day.

"The interest of the public and the need to get buses back on the streets is our primary concern," Day said.

The city has asked for a supervised vote by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 members, who have been waging a 20-day-old strike that has crippled the nation's capital and shows no signs of ending.

OC Transpo general manager Alain Mercier said that even with Parliament prorogued until Jan. 26, the minister can employ a rarely used section of the Canadian Labour Code that would allow her to order a vote.

Negotiations between the parties broke off Christmas Eve and the union has said it will not bring the offer to its members for a vote because it fails to address the key concerns.

The contentious issue that is keeping the two sides apart, driver scheduling, affects only 200 or so of the 2,300 striking union members, but the union has made it clear that the matter of scheduling must be taken off the table or the strike will continue.