Transportation is at the top of concerns Town of Barrhead councillors would like to discuss with Alberta’s Municipal Affairs minister Kaycee Madu.
That is what councillors decided during their Aug. 13 meeting when they accepted an invitation from Madu to speak with town representatives during Alberta Urban Municipalities Association’s fall convention in late September.
In recent years, it has become a tradition for the municipal affairs ministers to invite municipalities to speak with him or her on a one-on-one basis. Because of the limited time, the minister asks municipalities to present the topics they wish to discuss in advance.
Other topics councillors agreed to were provincial library funding and education.
Later in the meeting, councillors agreed they would poll surrounding municipalities for a willingness to create a regional transit service.
Coun. Rod Klumph said his main concern is residents ability to go to an urban centre for medical treatment.
“Right now we have many resident’s that are looking for a ride and there is nothing there,” he said.
Greyhound cancelled its Barrhead-Edmonton bus route in 2011, leaving people who needed to get to the city to find their own devices.
Barrhead is not the only rural community facing this issue. On Oct. 31, 2018, the company cancelled all of its western Canadian, Quebec, the Maritimes and most of its Ontario routes.
“In other communities, such as Whitecourt, they have a run, but here there is nothing,” he said.
What Klumph is referring to is Red Arrow stepping into the void left by Greyhound and adding a route from Grande Prairie to Edmonton, with stops in Whitecourt and Mayerthorpe.
He also added at one time Barrhead and District Family Community Support Services (FCSS) maintained a list of for-hire drivers who were willing to take residents to out of town appointments, but the non-profit organization banned the practice recently citing liability issues.
Klumph then suggested the town could step in, saying perhaps there was a provincial or federal grant available.
Mayor Dave McKenzie said while funding was a big hurdle to get over when starting a regional bus service to make it viable, they needed the buy-in from the medical community not only the rural town but of an urban medical facility.
About five years ago when McKenzie was working with Alberta Transportation as a traffic consultant in Grande Cache he learned about the community bus.
For a fee, the bus will pick up seniors and people with disabilities, by request similar to the HandyDart services in larger communities for in-town service. Once a week the 16-passenger mini-bus also goes to Hinton about an hour and a half away.
McKenzie noted the bus is provided through the efforts of local community groups, the municipality and the province.
“Getting the vehicle was the easiest part of it, then finding drivers, maintenance and insurance, but all of that wouldn’t have been for naught if they didn’t get a local doctor on board,” he said. “He would organize the trips in such a way that the medical facilities would set aside a block of time to provide all the services Grande Cache residents needed and scheduled them so everything could be provided in a day.”
However, McKenzie said he wasn’t sure such a system would work in Barrhead as the medical services residents access outside of Barrhead are spread out between two or three urban centres.
Coun. Leslie Penny agreed, suggesting a system such as Uber, a peer-to-peer ride-sharing service.
“If we were to ask people why they leave our community for bigger centres, I think we would find one of the top reasons is not having the ability to get to medical appointments,” she said.
Coun. Ty Assaf said the municipality was beginning the process of negotiating its Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) agreements.
ICF agreements are established between neighbouring municipalities on a wide variety of issues that impact both communities such as recreation, shared water and sewer to joint land planning. These agreements are mandatory under the province’s revised Municipal Government Act (MGA). The deadline for coming to these agreements between rural (county) and urban (town) municipalities is April 1, 2020. Rural to-rural municipalities have until April 1, 2021.
“Over the last few years, the province said over and over that we needed to collaborate with our neighbours. Perhaps this is something we can get together with Woodlands County, the County of Barrhead, the County of Westlock and create a regional transport system,” he said. “It is a big project, too big for one municipality so why not share the costs with other areas that have the same issue.”
