Council received the final Transit Study last night. The motion itself, did not include any other specific direction.
Last week, the report was received by the Public Services committee and passed forward to council.
At the committee, Couns. Rick Bull motioned for a working group to be established. And the motion passed at committee, however, while it was discussed favourably by some councillors last night, it was not included in the motion.
'We've had to find other ways to get our groceries home' - local senior resident
Local resident, Ms. Stella Waddington, addressed the council during the public input session at the beginning of the meeting.
Waddington expressed concerns about the quality of the data used in the study. Later, staff and a council member acknowledged some issues with the data.
Waddington also pointed out that in years prior to the data collection years, Elliot Lake used buses more conducive for seniors’ use. “I'd like to remind the council that we need a practical bus that we can do our shopping on. We need a wheel-on-ramp, which we had before 2019,” she said.
"Since 2019, we've been unable to do that and we've had to find other ways to get our groceries home. And that's now six years," Waddington explained.
Data issues
Responding later to Waddington’s comments about data, Special Projects manager, Bill Goulding said, “The constituent who made comments … drew to light some discrepancies that they perceived to be in the study. I think that’s reflective of the period in which the study data was covering.”
The study period included some years during COVID.
And Couns. Helen Lefebvre commented, “I think there’s been some concerns about the quality of the data that was provided, but I think overall the recommendations are very good.”
Goulding also explained that the data issues were discussed and “additional consideration really wouldn’t have changed the material recommendations.”
He added, “I was pretty direct with [the consultants] when we had our kickoff meeting, to say that we needed to find a really good way to maintain or improve the quality of our service and ensure its sustainability. Because at the time we commissioned this, we already knew that we were going to be under pressure for reserves and operations financing. So, I think that the firm was able to deliver.”
Route adjustments
Deputy mayor, Couns. Charles Flintoff said, “I really do like the redirection of some of the routes like Spine Road.” The report recommended the elimination of the Spine Road section of one of the routes.
“So, doing those things fairly quickly is not really going to cost the city a bunch of money in the budget. So, I think that’s something that we could probably get on… in the near future.”
Flintoff also expressed a desire to hear more about the on-demand service that the report recommended on an experimental basis.
Experimental on-demand service
Goulding addressed the recommendation of an experimental on-demand service observing, “We need to have a good look at these recommendations and see how we might actually realize them."
"I like the nature of the experimental approach with the on-demand although it strikes me that if we’re going to invest the amount of money that we need to do, to do that experiment, we need to make sure that there’s enough service happening so that we get good results and that it’s worthwhile relative to the investment."
'It's time to think about that now'
“If we’re looking at a couple of years to roll out some of these changes, it’s time to think about that now because based on the life expectancy that we saw the previous batch, we need to get moving on some of these changes,” he said.
And later, responding to comments from Couns. Lefebvre regarding a working group, Goulding also commented, “we did discuss that at the committee level.”
“I think the main benefit of having public input is to ensure that the constituency receives a level of service that they expect. Given our constraints, I wouldn’t characterize it as something that makes staff’s life easier, but I think it’s an important process to engage in.”
Study's length of time - many other major projects
The topic of the transit study has been before council, committee, and advisory committees, many times since it was contracted, July 2023.
And during his introduction, Goulding commented, "I've been reading over my introduction of this report, trying to come up with something unique to say, and it just struck me how long this has been an initiative of the city to get this transit study done."
"It's hard to see something postponed so long, but it's hard to say that there wasn't good reason with the emergent work with the arena, and the pool, and the art centre, and Hillside Drive, and the waterline project."
Last night's decision
The vote to receive the final Transit Study passed unanimously.