NIPAWIN — The lack of an intercity bus system was a big topic of discussion at the Carrot River Valley NDP’s annual general meeting.
The Oct. 28 meeting had Yens Pedersen as a guest speaker. Pedersen was recently voted in as the MLA for Regina Northeast in a byelection.
“Education, the cuts to education, the lack of funding to long-term care, those are things we’ve been hearing right across the board,” Pedersen said. “It’s not just a rural, not just an urban issue, it’s everywhere. People have been telling us that loud and clear.”
A major issue expressed by those in attendance was the lack of a rural bus system, including not being able to make medical appointments in Saskatoon because rural residents have no method of getting there.
Saskatchewan had the Saskatchewan Transportation Company which allowed rural residents to travel across the province, but that was closed in 2017. Greyhound Bus, another travelling method, soon followed, closing in 2018.
“Until we are elected we’re not in a position to implement a public transit service, we’d have to be in government to do that,” Pedersen said. “We will be continuing to point out to the government that there are people who are missing their appointments, who can’t get to their healthcare because there are no public transportation services there. We will be pointing out hitchhiking isn’t an option, that Uber isn’t an option, and that the existing private services that have stepped up are not sufficient as well to cover the province.”
According to Pedersen, the NDP is planning on implementing a new public transit plan should they win the provincial election.
“We are going to make sure we have a provincial public transit plan, the exact details of that we haven’t rolled out the announcement for that yet as part of our platform for the next election,” Pedersen said. “What we are going to do is continue to make sure this government is held to account for that decision [to cut the STC]. It was callous decision, it ignored the needs of a lot of sick, people in need, people in rural Saskatchewan who are already potentially isolated and needing support.”
The NDP is currently looking at costs of implementing a new bus system.
“Right now we’re in the process of looking at: ‘What would the cost of that be?’, ‘how could that cost be financed?’, ‘what would it look like?’, ‘are we talking getting 40 passenger buses, or is it smaller buses’, ‘is it a weekly service?’ There’s a whole bunch of things, and frankly as politicians we’re not the experts so we have to talk to people who are the experts.”
“Ultimately this is about getting the service to people who need it in rural Saskatchewan,” Pedersen said.
