NORTH BATTLEFORD — Amid chants of "Let's bring back transit for the city of North Battleford," demonstrators took to the street for a rally outside city hall in North Battleford on May 26.
The event was organized by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 615, who are concerned about the recently reduced transit service in North Battleford.
The Battlefords Transit System (BTS) Board previously said BTS proposed a reduction in service levels in response to North Battleford city council’s request to BTS to determine ways to cut costs for transit services during the city’s 2025 budget deliberations.
North Battleford city council approved the BTS board’s proposed reduction of service to a single route, along with shortened hours of operation each weekday during the March 10 council meeting.
According to the City of North Battleford, the city's 2025 budget initially included $238,586 for transit operations, but council asked the transit board (specifically, North Battleford Public Transit, not Handi-Bus services) to find a way to reduce costs during budget discussions in January.
During the March 10 city council meeting, transit presented a cost-cutting proposal. This included reduced hours of operation and the reduction from two routes to one.
Council approved these reductions to service delivery and thus the funding request for BTS operations was revised to $113,325 for 2025 (down from $238,586).
Darcy Pederson, president of ATU Local 615, told SaskToday at the rally the reduction in service has impacted the community.
"We're here in protest of the cuts made on March 10 by city council," he said. "We organized a union here for Battlefords Transit on Feb. 29, and on March 10 they cut the service in half, reduced the budget by more than half and laid off more than half of the workers. So, we're here to hopefully get the budget reinstated and get our people back to work."
Pederson added it's important to the community to have this service.
"The transit is the life-blood of a community," he said. "It gets people to work; it gets people to their doctors' appointments; it gets them their groceries or to their medical appointments, to home. Every community needs a service that's reliable and serves the people."
Pederson noted the service is continuing, it is just reduced, which still impacts a lot of people.
"Standing out here in the last 20 minutes, talking to people that ride the bus, they can get to places but they can't get home," he said. "They have no service on the weekends, and it's just not convenient."
Pederson said stores are open later than 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. when the service operates.
"They [people] need to get around," he said. "How are you going to take the bus after work to go to your part-time job, or after school to get to and from school? It's nearly impossible with the transit cuts that they have implemented."
