With the release of the provincial budget comes the destruction of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company.
Along with the 224 jobs that will be lost, connections will be lost between the 253 communities that STC serves.
One of these communities is Humboldt with the depot set up at Kemway Lanes.
Eric Ruthven of Kemway Lanes does not see a day where they do not send someone out on the bus or send out a parcel from one of the farm dealerships.
Low income passengers make up 70 per cent of STC’s clientele, according to their last Annual Report dated 2015-2016, with the number of passengers over the age of 65 growing to the highest it has ever been.
From a business stand point losses were at $16.65 million last year with costs being covered by government grants. Ridership was also down to 200,000 people last year.
These points should not be overlooked, however, subsidies to transportation are nothing new.
The whole point of transportation is making it accessible, both financially and physically.
It may not be a lot of people using the service out of Humboldt, says Ruthven, but these are people who really need the service at an affordable rate.
City transit is in the same boat when it comes to being government subsidized.
Looking at Saskatoon transit, 65.8 per cent of their expenses are subsidized by both the city and provincial governments.
Small business owners will also be affected as they will lose parcel service.
STC is something Elaina Adams with Prairie Glass uses constantly and she believes, compared to Canada Post and delivery companies like FedEx or Purolator, there are very few alternatives that are as convenient and cost effective as STC.
“Without that STC option it’s going to be very difficult to be competitive for shipping,” she says.
The Saskatchewan government does believe that private sector delivery will fill that gap with parcels but for the types and size of parcels Adams ships, it was not as cost effective.
The past couple of years have seen STC try to reduce spending and Ruthven says there could always be ways of cutting back on routes to save money.
Cost effectiveness is something that has been on the table for a while with STC using 22 passenger buses for the smaller passenger load routes.
The fact that there was no discussion with users on how to bring down costs is something that is frustrating to Adams.
“I realize they were losing a lot of money and that was very unfortunate but it wasn’t even explored to come up with an alternatives.”
Ruthven says that many of those people who need the service fall under this bracket of low income, and they do not have many alternatives.
Greyhound service runs along Highways 16 and 1 so unless they are willing to expand their service, which also has been cut in recent years, that is not an option for anyone wanting to travel to places like Prince Albert or the Battlefords.
Is someone going to see the potential of purchasing STC and run it privately?
Since government subsidizes are a reality of inter-province travel, a privately run bus company is going to have to change its business model to make the bus sustainable.
What will that do to prices that make bus travel actually affordable for those who use it the most?
