Councillors were having a difficult time keeping a lid on their outrage at Monday night’s council meeting over the issue of passengers being left to stand in the cold while waiting for buses at the local bus station.
It was a disgusted Councillor Cathy Richardson who raised the issue at council.
She pointed to “an incident at the local bus depot last Tuesday evening when three of our citizens were asked to leave the building and wait outside in the cold.”
Richardson said she brought up the issue at SUMA with the provincial cabinet there. She and other members of council were at the SUMA convention in Saskatoon last week.
“I think we need to do something with this. This is totally unacceptable,” said Richardson.
She also praised a couple of individuals who responded to the situation. One offered his vehicle as shelter for the passengers while they waited for the bus to arrive, while another got some hot chocolate, compliments of the Co-op gas station nearby, to take back to the waiting passengers.
Richardson also noted this has not been the first such incident at the depot of people being forced to wait outside in the cold.
Mayor Ian Hamilton said they had contacted certain agencies in the past on the issue but were prepared to do so again.
In addition to putting pressure on the local operator of the bus depot, Councillor Ryan Bater suggested writing Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation, who “has a contract to keep that open. I think they have the responsibility to make sure that their riders have a warm place to wait for their bus as a customer. I can’t believe people were put out in the cold last week, to me it’s just wrong.”
Councillor Greg Lightfoot made clear, however, that the situation last week involved a Greyhound bus that was late by an hour and a half.
Had it arrived on time the building would have been available. “Normally, the building would have been open,” said Lightfoot.
“Still, it’s unacceptable that (the passengers) were put outside in the cold in 20 below weather. It was not the passengers’ fault.”
Hamilton pledged to pursue the issue further and find out more information.
