Coming Up: Sept 7
Council meets on Monday. The most significant items on our agenda:
Grande Spirit Housing
Transit Re-design
Following is more information and my take on agenda items.
As always, any mistakes or opinions belong to me and me alone, not to Council or City staff.
While I express my current views below, I work hard to go into meetings ready to listen and with an open mind. I learn new information and participate in debate. This always informs, and sometimes changes, how I vote on issues.
If you would like to watch the meeting or read any of its supporting material for yourself, you can do so by clicking here. The City will post the highlights of Council’s decisions here.
GRANDE SPIRIT HOUSING
The City owns 19 Social Housing units which were given to it by the province in 2007. They are currently operated by Grande Spirit Foundation (GSF).
It is recommended that the City transfer ownership to GSF. This would allow the Foundation to borrow against their value to fund new units. The value of these units is $3.2 million.
The Grande Spirit Foundation is a well governed and managed organisation. I know that if given these assets, it will care for them properly while making responsible decisions to serve more people. I am likely to support this recommendation.
TRANSIT RE-DESIGN
Transit has been a hot issue this Council term. Council has reduced services while increasing fares (decisions which I have argued and voted against). However, despite rollbacks they need to work with, our staff have brought some improvements forward. But administration has identified some fundamental challenges with our overall system.
Despite significant growth, our Transit system has not been re-designed in over 15 years. As routes have been stretched out overtime, they’ve become complicated to operate and use. This leads to inefficiencies and hit-or-miss service across town. Additionally, the new hospital is [hopefully] opening in December. Transit routes need to be updated to accommodate it.
It is recommended that Council approve a system redesign. You can see the full proposal here.
All fixed routes in this design would start and end at the Town Centre Mall, meaning that someone could always make a trip across the City with only one transfer.
Additionally, this design has several “on demand” areas. These are parts of the City where ridership is very low, so it is difficult to justify a fixed route that would be mostly empty. In these areas, passengers would be able to use an app or the phone to request a community shuttle. It would take them to hub where they could get on another route.
There are many parts of this re-design which are good. It will be more efficient. I’ve talked to Transit users who have said their daily commute will be easier. And I especially like that we are adopting on demand components. On demand has big potential in the future to extend Transit hours in a cost-effective manner. It could also eventually allow us to merge on demand passengers with accessible transit users, which could create more dignity and community connection for people using accessible transit.
However, I’ve also talked to some Transit users who will see their daily commute made more difficult under the re-design. To some extent, this is inevitable. No matter how a new system is implemented, it will always have a negative impact on some people. But I want to be sure that these instances are minimized.
I’ve also talked to a lot of Transit users who don’t have fundamental objections to the re-design. But they do have apprehension about how it will be implemented. Talking to them, I’ve come across a lot of questions that I need answered.
In principle, I’m supportive of this re-design. But there are some important details of it that concern me. I’ll be waiting until Council’s opportunity to ask more questions and debate the re-design before I know whether or not I support it.
That’s what is on our agenda for Monday. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You can comment below. Or, you can contact me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166. I'm happy to talk online or over the phone. I'm also always willing to setup a time to meet for coffee.
We also always have great conversation in the GP Round Table group on Facebook.
After Council meeting, you will be able to find highlights posted by the City here.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan