Hayley Halushka, left, Bill Burles and Pierre Lafond want to get around town just like everybody else. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

Halushka is not the kind of person to complain. She waits. In Yellowknife, when it comes to getting where she has to go, Halushka doesn't have a choice. Halushka is one of many persons with disabilities who rely on cabs to go to school, to go shopping, and get to doctor appointments.

When city officials start talking about subsidizing public transportation for people like her, she listens.

Bill Burles thinks it is time the city considers a para-transit system. Burles, a long-time Yellowknife resident, is in a wheelchair. When he was going to the hospital two and three times a week before Christmas, he called for City Cabs' wheelchair-accessible van. But with the $6 fare on top of the regular fare, it was costing him $50 a week.

"I was able to get help eventually through (department of) Health and Social Services," he said. But not all the time.

"They assume it's covered by government. But it's not," he said. "A lot of the time I'm paying it out of my own pocket."

Burles said he'd like buses to be accessible.

"I haven't taken a bus in 10 years, since I lived in Victoria," Burles said.

In Cranbrook, B.C., a community of about 19,000 people, the public bus system is accessible to people in wheelchairs.

"We can fit two wheelchairs per bus," said John Darula, manager of the Cranbrook system.

For seniors and those with disabilities, there's the HandyDart bus system, supported by a partnership between the public transit system and the City of Cranbrook, who contract it out to a private operator.

Burles said there was talk in the city about subsidizing the van the cab company uses.

"We would pay a bus fare and the city would pick up the rest of the fare," said Burles. "But I don't know what happened with that."

Doreen Baptiste has a visual and physical impairment.

"I only have the use of one hand. It's just easier to take a cab."

Baptiste thinks the current transportation system is flawed and discriminatory.

"We should be able to participate as equal citizens in Yellowknife.

"So I like the idea of having a taxi service that would cost us no more than it would to take a bus because that puts us on equal footing with everyone else," said Baptiste.

"I don't think we should be penalized financially just because we have a disability. We already have difficulties in society because of our disabilities that we didn't ask for."

For Pierre Lafond and his wife, Janet, it's been difficult. He has waited over an hour for a cab.

Sitting with others who have gone through the same thing, he thinks the best system is a bus where they pay the same fare as any citizen in Yellowknife.

"It is a health issue. There are people with disabilities that come to Yellowknife from other communities," Baptiste said.

Transportation is one issue. Education and training for people who operate transit is another.

Baptiste says her visual impairment isn't always obvious to people.

She stressed: "Why should I walk around with a white cane advertising to everybody that I have a disability? People don't go around advertising that they have a personal problem. Why should we?"

The city is looking into a para-transit system, one that serves seniors and the disabled, city councillor Robert Hawkins said Friday.

The city's public works department has talked to groups like the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities.

"They want to understand what the difficulties are."

On Feb. 18 council will meet for an educational session about persons with disabilities.

"I've asked for training to bring awareness," Hawkins said. "There is a concern we're not in touch with the community."