Getting dogged: Greyhound cuts prompt northwest to lobby for bus subsidies.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

If you live in a small northwestern Ontario community without a vehicle and without bus service, you could be out of luck in getting to a scheduled medical appointment, or an upcoming court date, on time.

And if you can't score a ride from a family or friend, it might mean a pricey cab ride to another community or resorting to hitchhiking along a snowy highway.

Common Voice Northwest wants the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to keep that mind as they work on a multi-modal transportation strategy for Northern Ontario.

Cuts in Greyhound bus service last fall prompted the coalition of community and business leaders to craft a policy paper--The Future of Inter-City Community Bus Service in Northwestern Ontario --calling for an annual provincial subsidy of up to $3.5 million to support the region's bus lines or provide travel vouchers for individual travellers.

Iain Angus, executive director of Common Voice Northwest, said the situation is not good for the sustainability of small towns.

No bus service exists between Fort Frances-Rainy River and Kenora, from Vermillion Bay to Red Lake, and between Thunder Bay and Armstrong.

"It's truly putting a lot of pressure on the small communities. They have a hard enough time retaining their residents as it is," he said.

"If you're a regular traveller, you're going to likely move."

Subsidizing inter-community travel is not new since Metrolinx and GO train service in the GTA, and the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, are publicly supported.

The report assesses the transportation system in the northwest as fragmented and funded by a "hodgepodge" of ministry programming.

Social service agencies note clients in rural areas struggle to get to medical appointments or are forced to pay out-of-pocket for an expensive cab ride to meet an Ontario Works caseworker.

Sandy Smith, owner of Caribou Coach in Thunder Bay, has witnessed ridership plummet over the eight years he's run the company.

It's forced him to withdraw service from Hearst and run less frequently to other communities.

"We're down close to 40 per cent of where we were at this time last year," said Smith. "We're going through our personal line of credit to keep scheduled service going."

The competition he faces is almost a death by a thousand cuts.

Smith, who contributed to the Common Voice report, levels the blame on the questionable decisions made by the Ontario Highway Transport Board for introducing "unwarranted" competition on some routes.

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