SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It goes to bars, restaurants and even Wal-Mart, but in summertime the Yellowknife transit system doesn't send a bus to the hospital. Dick Reid wants that changed.

Dick Reid steps off a Yellowknife transit bus more than a block away from the Stanton Territorial Hospital because the summer route schedule removed the facility from its points of destination. - Ben Morgan/NNSL photo

Reid has no problem getting to the hospital in the winter, when the bus drops him off at the front door.

"But if you're going to the hospital in the summertime you have get off and walk a good block and a half. It's a pretty good walk and it's uphill, but the point is why do they take it out of the loop?" he said.

Reid, 63, has diabetes. He said he's in good health for the most part but on bad days his condition doesn't allow for a walk that far. Instead, he takes a $12 cab ride from his downtown home.

Municipal Works engineer Wendy Alexander said, "This is one of the reasons why the city is doing a route analysis - to determine what we can do because a lot of people have complained that the buses don't go to the hospital."

"When they first created the route schedule they wanted to be able to incorporate as much of the city as possible. Adding the hospital onto the route just added too much time so they figured there were enough stops close enough to the hospital," Alexander said.

Reid called the decision insensitive.

"My point to them is the city is continually telling us to use the bus," said Reid. "This is really going against their policy. Their policy is to get people to ride the bus."

The final report on the route analysis won't be finished until the end of the summer and other considerations will also need addressing before any change to a summer bus schedule is amended - even by next summer, perhaps.

Reid contacted Coun. David Wind for help.

Wind said the city should provide busing wherever it's needed.

"I would say that a change to include a stop at the hospital is not of such importance that it would warrant a delay of a year and a half while the route analysis and the budget considerations were completed," said Wind. "It seems to me we could move a bit more quickly than that on it."

He plans to discuss the issue with city council but said he wouldn't pre-judge what might happen until further investigation.

Wind said some tweaking of the schedule might be possible to get the best results.

"I have a feeling that the public sentiment would be in favor of having a bus route that included the hospital," he said.

Reid said he doesn't think he'll see any changes to bus stops this summer, but next year he thinks the hospital will have bus service for a full 12 months.