Reaction to a Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) staff report on transit suggests funding for expanded service could be a contentious issue when SCRD directors sit down for round two budget talks.
The report, giving an overview of “the history, current status and funding for transit services on the Sunshine Coast,” was presented at the Feb. 23 corporate and administrative services committee meeting. It was requested by SCRD directors after a decision on transit was deferred during the first round of budget talks.
Last year the SCRD board approved, in principle, a plan that would add more than 6,300 hours of service, six new buses, and 16 to 18 additional driver shifts a week. The SCRD share of the cost would be $270,000 in 2017 with BC Transit picking up $120,000. The SCRD’s annual cost for the full expansion would be $466,000 starting in 2018.
The report points out that Sunshine Coast Transit is unusual in that there’s no “operating partner,” which in many communities is a private company that handles “driver hiring, training and supervision, vehicle maintenance staff and services, direct customer service (phone support, lost and found) and fare revenue collection,” according to the report.
Sunshine Coast Transit is a two-way partnership, in which funding is split 53/47 between the SCRD and BC Transit for conventional service and 33/70 for HandyDart. The only other services set up along the same lines are in Nanaimo, Powell River and Nelson.
Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell said he thinks the transit funding question could be a “watershed moment in our budget deliberations.” He also noted that official community plans throughout the SCRD, and several studies commissioned by the regional district, support improvements to transit service.
“I know that property tax is regressive, but so is designing [transportation infrastructure] for two-car families and the 10 or 12 thousand dollars that second car entails,” Lebbell said. “Directors will recall my interest in a fuel tax [to fund transit].”
Halfmoon Bay director, and SCRD chair, Garry Nohr said there is room for improvement when it comes to sharing the cost among SCRD areas, but a full service review would be too big a task for the regional district to take on right now.
“It’s now 10-plus years that I’ve been involved in dealing with transit expansion to Halfmoon Bay. It hasn’t expanded. And each time we get close, either the [provincial] government or some other issue stops us from doing it. There’s only so long you can sit and wait.”
Ian Winn, director for West Howe Sound, questioned the current model. “Is this the right model for us? Are there other models? Given that there’s only four other governments in B.C. that use this model, I’m wondering if there’s something else.”
Lorne Lewis of Elphinstone said he attended a Union of BC Municipalities session a few years ago and came back convinced the SCRD is on the right track. “The number of people operating under other models who were dissatisfied made a real impression on me. When there’s a problem with what we’re doing, we get to deal with it right here [at the SCRD board], and to me that’s just a huge benefit for the transit users, the taxpayers and everyone else.”
A motion put forward by Winn to ask for a staff report on other partnership models for the transit system failed to get support.
Pender Harbour isn’t part of the transit function right now, but the full expansion plan calls for a study of expanding the service into Area A in 2019. Director Frank Mauro said, “I know that there’s a need for public transportation in Area A … I certainly understand people in the function being concerned, and I’m concerned about in any way joining the function based on the numbers that are quite frightening … There’s some hard decisions that have to be made here.”
Jeremy Valeriote, the director for Gibsons, said Town council has discussed the issue, and while concerned about ridership versus cost, they see transportation as critical to economic development.“We see it as an investment in the community,” Valeriote said.
The report said Sunshine Coast Transit has “not yet seen the lift in ridership that often accompanies service increases. Possible factors could be service frequency, increased ferry delays, the absence of a ‘clock face’ schedule, and frequent schedule adjustments to accommodate ferry changes.”
Winn said concerns over the ridership numbers, and how the partnership with BC Transit is working, will make it hard to support the expansion plan.
“The service has been operating in a deficit for the last four years, and it appears to me that BC Transit is in the driver’s seat on our current partnership model and we lack control of our own destiny,” he said. “Area F taxpayers, especially the islanders, would rather put their tax dollars into maintaining the docks and not into expanding mainland transit services … I feel we’re living beyond our means and we can’t afford the current expansion proposal.”
In the end, the committee voted to move the transit expansion plan forward to the final round of budget meetings, which is scheduled for March 7 and 8.
