By James Wood

Councillor urges Medicine Hat residents to attend transit open houses

Aug 10, 2017 | 1:39 PM

Celina Symmonds wants to hear what the Gas City has to say.

Since Wednesday’s transit announcement, she’s been watching the mixed public reaction to the changes, and wanted to make sure that residents would come out to scheduled consultation sessions about the new system to raise their concerns.

Symmonds is one of the three members of city council that sit on the Public Services Committee, which handles transit in the city.

On Wednesday morning, the municipal government announced a series of sweeping changes to the bus system in Medicine Hat, which will transition to a set of core and feeder routes. While the core routes will run throughout the week, the feeder routes will not run on weekends, statutory holidays, or after 6:30 p.m.

Young minds, big ideas: Elementary students learn about urban planning with 'Box City'

5h ago

HERE'S WHAT TO KNOW

Summer pool hours extended and discounts applied as Big Marble Go Centre upgrades start

Apr 18, 2024

Medicine Hat company drawing in clients with witty signage

Apr 16, 2024

“Certainly I’ve been following on Facebook, and reading some of the concerns that people have,” said Symmonds.

“The City is not out to not have people be able to get to work, or any of those things, but sometimes by coming out to the consultation you have an opportunity to hear the other side of the story, and how it might work even better for you, depending on your situation.”

Symmonds also brought up the results of the Financially Fit survey conducted by the city in 2016, which found that residents wanted to see changes made to the transit system.

“We were listening to the community,” said Symmonds.

“Essentially, what the community told us was that we have a transit system that’s robust, and fantastic, however, it’s not full and not being used and we needed to look at a different opportunity.”

Symmonds additionally said she would be headed to the consultations, and providing her own feedback during the process.

“Our phone numbers are printed, our emails are printed, and I would love to hear from people if they have concerns,” said Symmonds.

“Attend the consultations, let us know what you think. We are watching on Facebook and reading that, some of those things I will be taking back and letting people know what the feedback is.”

As for job losses among transit staff due to the changes, Symmonds said that would be an operational decision. Overall, she wanted to impress her view that residents should head to the public consulations.

“I think I understand people are scared,” said Symmonds.

“Any kind of change is absolutely scary, and we understand that. But also, make sure that you have the right information. Sometimes we look at the map and we panic, or we hear something and we panic. If you don’t know, call us.”

Public information sessions are being put together by the City for those wanting to learn about the new routes. A supplied schedule was as follows;

Aug. 10, Family Leisure Centre, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Aug. 16, Family Leisure Centre, noon to 4 p.m.

Aug. 19, Co-op Mall, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 23, Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, 9 a.m. to noon

Aug. 26, Medicine Hat Mall, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Aug. 29, Co-op Mall, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aug. 30, Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, 9 a.m. to noon

Sept. 5, Esplanade, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

The City also provided a temporary helpline for information and questions, which can be reached at 403-529-8900.