Elliot Lake retiree, Stella Waddington, addressed the Public Services Standing Committee yesterday afternoon regarding the local bus service.
“Hello, I would like to speak about the transit system and particularly about the buses. The current buses that we have, have extremely steep steps and they're very hard to get up and down for seniors,” Waddington said as she spoke about item 7.1 'Transit Study Update.'
The attached staff memo informed the standing committee, “Staff has been working with the consultants to plan deliverables, the first of which is a survey to capture public input on the transit system. This survey will be delivered via the city’s website and will be going live before mid-March.”
The survey will capture information for a contracted transit study, approved July 10, 2023. The $57,588 study is part of an up to $937,500 available budget to improve local transportation - improvements heavily funded by federal and provincial governments, as reported earlier by ElliotLakeToday.
Waddington moved to Elliot Lake in July of 2018. She told ElliotLakeToday that when she arrived here, “the physical buses were different.”
“There was one step to get on the bus. And the bus lowered too. And once you got on with your shopping buggy or your walker, there was space for those things on the bus. But now, there isn’t.”
She described how the seats were “down the sides, so we had more room.”
“I was going out for my groceries, so I specially bought a compact shopping cart, a small one, and then I could wheel that on when it was full.”
Waddington also spoke at length about the difficulties she sees other people, less mobile than she is, have with Elliot Lake’s public transportation.
Shortly after moving to Elliot Lake, Waddington described how in 2019, new buses arrived. “And right away I knew there was a problem. So, I went to see Mayor Marchesella.”
“I wrote a three-page report for him, and he said the next time that they ordered buses, my points will be taken into consideration,” she said.
Commenting on the buses that arrived a few weeks ago, Waddinton added, “So, roughly speaking, that was about five years ago. So now we've got to wait another five years for these buses to wear out so we can get accessible buses. And I know that a lot of people just can't get on the bus.”
The most recent bus purchase was approved by council on Feb. 27, 2023. At committee, the topic was a third point in a department report and at the subsequent council meeting, it was an addendum item.
Local resident, Mike Thomas, also spoke to the committee. Thomas is a long-time advocate for accessibility.
He is concerned that the survey will not reach many of the residents who are unable to use the new buses noting that in the survey plan, “it's omitted that they'd be canvassed in a way that would suit them.”
Thomas described, “The missing factor is that at 1 and 3 Washington; in 100 Warsaw, and many of the other multi-rez buildings in the city - a lot of those people don't have internet. A lot of them don't have a cell phone. They don't have regular TV. service. They listen to the radio, they sit in their apartment, they do leisurely activities that are zero cost.”
“So our ability to reach them, to gather information from them has been compromised to the tune of about probably 28 per cent to 30 per cent of our population we don't hear from,” he said to the committee.
Later, when the committee discussed this agenda item, a lengthy discussion about methods to capture survey information occurred.
Mayor Andrew Wannan commented to staff, “Okay. Just offering up a suggestion is maybe you get a mobile service, like a van, and you go to these places and set up a schedule and have residents sign up for a certain slot. I don't know how long it takes these surveys to fill out, and that could be helpful. Just a suggestion.”
Couns. Rick Bull: “More of a comment. I agree with Mayor Wannan’s comment about being able to access the apartment buildings … to try and get more and more people involved. And if we do have to get a ‘mobile something’ or get somebody set up there in the building … I think there's a lot of people we need to know what their issues are, too.”
The committee has forwarded the matter to council.
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