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New buses coming for city
Councillors frustrated by rushed vote on $1.25-million annual contract

Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City council rushed through a vote Monday to approve a new $1.25-million a year bus contract that calls for the addition of more accessible low-floor models to the fleet, as long as it can be proved the buses will stand the test of Yellowknife winters.

City councillor Paul Falvo, long an advocate for public transportation, said he would have liked more time to consider the different options but felt pressured to vote given that the existing contract with First Canada - formerly Cardinal Coachlines - ends today.

Council was presented with four contract options - all with First Canada - at a municipal services committee meeting Monday afternoon, and asked to vote that night. Earlier this year, Falvo called on the city to consider a publicly-owned transit service, and to establish a GPS monitoring system so riders will know when the bus is coming before stepping out into the cold. But none of that was on the table Monday.

He said council doesn't even know what these low-floor buses will look like or what their seating capacity is but First Canada will start with one as a pilot project this winter and add three more for regular transit in 2013 if all goes well. Another two low-floor buses would be added to the Yellowknife Accessible Transit System (YATS) fleet.

"My concern is that this is something that matters to a lot of people," said Falvo, Monday.

"It was on the MSC agenda just this morning and now we see it a few hours later. It doesn't give people much time to respond and comment. People will read about in the newspaper."

Despite Falvo's reservations, only Coun. Cory Vanthuyne voted against the new contract. He expressed frustration with the lack of time council had to consider the options.

At $1.25 million a year, the new four-year contract is 17 per cent more expensive than the previous one. That said, the richest option - option four - would have been 39 per cent more expensive, $1.7 million a year, and would have added new bus routes, including one to Niven Lake. The previous contract was for $1.06 million a year. First Canada was the only bidder in a request-for-proposals put out by the city earlier this summer.

Coun. Lydia Bardak said she thought the process was fair.

"We have been through this process in the past," she said. "The difference is some of the pressures that some of my fellow councillors are feeling. We are coming into an election, but that doesn't stop us from making decisions."

According to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, the low-floor buses will be similar to transit buses used in cities down south, as opposed to the modified school buses that currently serve the city. The new bus will include an accessibility ramp that flips out to the street level.

"It is a bus that instead of going up a bunch of stairs, you go in so that it is closer to the ground," said Van Tighem.

"But it would not have the hydraulics making the bus go up and down because they don't work here."

The consideration of additional routes is being left for another day, but it is likely the next council will look at extending service to Niven.

"The incremental cost of adding new routes to Niven was quite expensive and we have declined that for the moment but that is one of the aspects of the contract that could be added by a future council," said Coun. Mark Heyck.

Heyck also said the next council may have to look at a fare increase to offset costs for the contract, something with which Falvo vehemently disagrees.

"We need to increase ridership," said Falvo.

As far as the quick turn-around from discussion to a vote Monday, Van Tighem insists there has been plenty of time for people to make their views known.

"There was a ridership survey done earlier in the year and consultation with regard to the routes," said Van Tighem. "Councillors who thought it was rammed through didn't necessarily have the opportunity to attend that public consultation, but the information was provided to council in the normal time frame that anything else would be provided."

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