To the editor:
Jim Bletz’s Letter to the editor “Ontario Northland expansion would be overreach” mixes his politics and the transportation services to our many communities in the region without recognizing the reality of our area.
Every year, nearly 60,000 people leave their community to access healthcare that is not available in their small Northwestern town. Of those trips, nearly 16,000 were to medical services in Winnipeg and over 33,000 to Thunder Bay. The vast majority of people went by private vehicle as no bus service was available to meet their needs. Many have also abandoned the smaller communities, moving to the major centres to be close to the health care they will need in their later years. Those numbers do not account for other reasons for travel between communities – visiting family and friends, shopping, hockey tournaments, obtaining legal and other services not found at home. The vast majority of those trips are by private cars or trucks.
Mr Bletz wrote about the lessons of history being clearer, however he failed to mention the main cause of today’s transportation challenges implemented by the government of Canada
Up until 1986 the federal government mandated both inter-provincial air carriers and bus services to serve both small and large communities regardless of the passenger loads or profit margins. This was designed as a forced cross subsidization policy to ensure that those smaller communities could be provided with the necessary connections to the rest of Canada with funding coming from the profitable routes of the carriers. Ontario also required that cross subsidization for bus services.
De-regulation converted the entire air and bus industry to one that chose winners at the expense of smaller communities….and Northwestern Ontario was one of the losers.
With NorOntair, ceasing air operation in 1996 many communities in the region lost scheduled air service. Those that retained private owned scheduled carriers were challenged to provide sufficient passengers willing to pay the rates necessary to sustain the service. Fort Frances, In the latest chapter Bearskin Airline has withdrawn its service from Fort Frances, Kenora and Dryden. Only Dryden continues to have one carrier serving northern communities and Winnipeg but no connection to the east.
Greyhound’s main line service connecting Winnipeg to Sault Ste Marie along highway 17 continued until 2009 when it eliminated all service west of Sudbury.
A number of private bus operators attempted to provide service to various communities across the region. Most ended up going out of business. There weren’t enough passengers willing to pay to keep the service profitable. Only one remains today – Kasper Transportation – and it only serves part of the region.
The major benefit of a subsidized service is that it allows for ticket prices that are much more attractive to those who must travel between communities. It also provides for a high quality of inter-community bus including on board washrooms which are essential for the lengthy travel times in the region. It has also facilitated the provision of handicapped access to the buses. As noted earlier, the majority of this travel has Thunder Bay as a destination for medical reasons.
The provincial government is already significantly subsidizing transportation in Ontario by funding Metrolinx and the GO system for service in the GTHA and Ontario Northland in Northeastern Ontario in order to keep fares reasonable for the passengers while at the same time maintaining and replacing their rolling stock. The expansion of Ontario Northland into the Northwest was welcomed by all the communities it now serves in part because the Northwest is as deserving of transportation support as the rest of Ontario.
Private sector carriers are not the solution for Northwestern Ontario if the intent is to serve all of the communities with a reasonably priced air or bus carrier. If that was not the case, the municipalities, both directly and through the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association would not be encouraging Ontario Northland to expand their service into and throughout the region.
Those same municipalities recognize that in order to keep their older residents from moving to the major communities of Kenora, Dryden and Thunder Bay they need an affordable inter-community bus service that connects them to those hub communities. If they were satisfied with the existing service there would be no need to lobby ONTC.
Iain Angus,
Thunder Bay
Iain Angus is a longtime former Thunder Bay city councillor and a former NDP MPP and MP