Dear Editor:
A totally unacceptable statement was made a while back by a government official during a TV interview about the Saskatchewan Transportation Company buses’ up-coming shut down! This was: that the STC was being subsidized by tax payers who never use the bus, and that was not fair. What nonsense! So, people who no longer drive vehicles should not pay taxes for maintaining highways? Or, once children are out of school, parents should not pay school taxes?
Then, I get the impression that our villages and rural areas are being looked upon with contempt! The people on Reserves and villages still used for residential purposes and small businesses will have no way in or out except via a vehicle. Even if you live in a larger centre like Yorkton, and you plan an outing after May 31 to anywhere in the province you already feel stranded! Seventy years ago, reliable bus companies, especially the STC made up the void when passenger trains quit running. Now, it just feels like we are going backwards!
Speculating that “private sector” will step in is a wishy washy prospect. There would not be a central office to coordinate services across the province, and what about the same secure and professional services that the STC has? The government has made our province more and more a two big city place because there are fewer and fewer specialists in smaller centres, so now ways of getting those services are complicated by the potential shut down of the STC bus! One family I know have already moved out of Yorkton with having to face the problems of transportation. Nobody is considering the fact that we need to plan for the upcoming increase of the aging population? Another reason to keep transportation services!
I have talked to many folks. We all agree that we need the STC! Selling STC buses is a big mistake! Let the company use smaller buses and the bigger ones for peak travel times. We concerned citizens, we who never complained about subsidizing numerous Federal and
Provincial government enterprises for decades, including STC, we seniors who have “held up the fort” want the STC buses to stay!
Terri Lefebvre Prince, Yorkton, SK
