The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) corporate and administrative services committee is recommending the regional district sign an annual operating agreement with BC Transit and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand bus service.
The funding for the service expansion was approved during the budget deliberations earlier this year. The SCRD’s portion of the cost is estimated at $155,000 this year and $466,000 per year from the SCRD going forward.
Despite being time-sensitive, authority to sign the MOU and operating agreement was held up at committee May 18 when a tie vote sent it down to defeat. Halfmoon Bay director and SCRD chair Garry Nohr was opposed, along with Ian Winn of West Howe Sound and Doug Wright of Sechelt.
Nohr, who voted in favour when the issue came back on May 25, explained that he wanted to ensure that all directors with a vote on transit were present (shíshálh Nation director Keith Julius was not at the May 18 meeting) and that a notice of motion he put forward during budget to study how the cost of transit was divided among the jurisdictions was going to be dealt with.
Winn and Wright, however, remained steadfast in their opposition.
“I absolutely, totally, agree that an enhanced transit system and expanded transit system would serve us very well on the Coast, but my issue is the funding and the funding model,” said Winn, who argued for a slower-paced expansion.
Wright made a similar argument. “I believe that transit is an integral part of what we have to supply on the Sunshine Coast, but this is not the model for me. It’s got to do with the sustainability and the cost,” he said.
Julius said the SCRD needs to start taking steps that will reduce the number of cars on the road as part of an overall effort to protect the environment, and better transit service is a good step toward that goal.
Lorne Lewis, director for Elphin-stone, said he’s been working toward a transit expansion for more than six years, in part because a good transit system is one of the keys to economic development. He also said the service improvements on the table address one of the biggest faults that’s dogged the system over the years.
“One of the things that seems so important to the functioning of the transit system is being able to serve Langdale on a regular basis so that our transit schedule doesn’t have to be changed seven, eight or nine times a year to meet BC Ferries,” he said. “To me it’s really important that we have a transit system that serves the ferry well.”
The transit expansion would add about 6,370 hours of service in its first phase, including express service every 30 minutes on Route 90 during the morning and afternoon peak periods and hourly service on Route 1, from 5 a.m. to midnight.
BC Transit and the SCRD are hoping to begin the new schedules Sept. 5, the Tuesday after Labour Day.
Nohr’s notice of motion, which got full support, called for a study to come forward before the end of the year looking at how funding works in other communities, options for changing how transit costs are shared between the rural areas and municipalities that get service and, at the suggestion of Winn, mechanisms for withdrawal by an area or part of an area.
