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Councillors don’t want to see transit change raise taxes

Nov 21, 2017 | 3:24 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT – The old transit system will be back in operation starting on Monday November 27th.

The new system was in place for less than two weeks in September when the previous city council voted to scrap it after a lot of public backlash.

Many people who rely on transit said the changes and drop in weekend service meant they could no longer take the bus, some people said it even led to them losing their jobs.

The switch back will add $650,000 to the 2018 budget, which is equivalent to an additional one per cent tax increase.

At the city council meeting Monday, Councillor Phil Turnbull said he doesn’t want to see that cost passed on to homeowners.

“We’re already at four per cent [increase], that was the promise of Financially Fit is never more than four per cent,” he explained. “Now we’re going to be five per cent, plus we’re increasing fees, you know at some point you have to say no.”

The city is already taking $17 million out of its reserves in 2018, to cover a gap in revenue from the city’s Natural Gas and Petroleum Resources division, due to continued low commodity prices.

Councillor Julie Friesen said she’s be on board with taking the extra $650,000 out of reserves to cover the restoration of the old transit system.

“An extra $650,000 to cover this is a far better option than placing an additional one per cent tax increase on the backs of our folks,” said Friesen.

With transit reverting back it means there will be no savings on the public service that costs the city around $6 million annually.

Turnbull suggested the province should provide stable funding for transit services in mid-size cities in Alberta.

“If they gave each one of our cities $2 million to operate public transit, because aren’t they the ones who want greener? Don’t they want more public transit? They’re the ones pushing that because of the carbon tax,” he said. “So, what would be another $8 million in comparison to the huge debt that the province is running?”

Despite the reversal of the transit system, the city says changes will still be made to it in the future.

Staff are looking at ways to improve the system while reducing costs.

In order to help find efficiencies in the system the city is implementing an electronic fare system to better track ridership and where changes could be made.

“When you have better data you can make better decisions about where to offer service, more service or less service,” said Friesen. “It will really help us plan for the future and for a better service to meet the needs of the people who use it.”

It will take at least one full year to gather the data from the new electronic system so the city doesn’t anticipate any major changes to transit until at least 2019.

Councillors say when changes are made in the future they hope to see the city hold more thorough consultations with transit users and the public.