Oxford County is moving forward with an rural transit service for Northern Oxford after a spirited and lengthy debate and a close 6-4 vote on Wednesday night.
OXFORD COUNTY - Oxford County is moving forward with an rural transit service for Northern Oxford.
The vote passed with a 6-4 vote on Wednesday night after a spirited debate in Council Chambers. Warden Larry Martin says the system will be operated by East Zorra-Tavistock and it is good news for rural residents.
"I really hope it takes off and I know there was a lot of strong feelings both ways on this, but if you are a younger person and you have a drivers licence, you don't so much about the seniors and that and how they get around and how they are supposed to get where they have to go. They like to maintain their independence as much as everybody else and they like to stay in their own home as well. Like I say, I hope this takes off and we will have to monitor it with an ongoing basis."
County council will seek approval for a multi year grant for the intercommunity bus service in northern Oxford County. The proposal would use provincial gas tax funding to offset approximately 50% of overall expenses. The report to council stated that it presents a viable opportunity to address long-standing transportation challenges in rural-urban mobility, both within Oxford County and across Southwestern Ontario, that affect people’s ability to access employment, health services, educational opportunities, and social connections.
The City of Woodstock was adamantly against the service, saying it is too expensive. City staff estimated that the gross cost in the first year of service would be about $387 per rider trip and $100 per rider trip in the future. Oxford County councillors from Woodstock, Mayor Trevor Birtch and Deb Tait voted against the new service, however councillor Sandra Talbot was in favour of it. Another oddity in the voting had the Mayor of Blandford-Blenheim Mark Peterson vote in favour of the new service, however Blandford-Blenheim council was opposed to it.
Woodstock Mayor Trevor Birtch provided the following statement on the matter.
"As Mayor of the City of Woodstock, I believe County Staff have made a colossal mess of the work to introduce a north rural intercommunity transit service.
There was no communication with Woodstock ahead of the initial July report seeking approval to engage in a public survey for a proposed County/Township System and revealing an accelerated timeline to implementation. There was no communication with all area municipalities of this proposed system during the recent Service Delivery Review. All area municipalities including the County were directed by their respective Councils to work together to explore ways to share services and find ways to be more efficient or deliver enhanced service without significant cost increases. This has obviously not happened for this new proposed service. Instead any potential for working together involves an area municipality submitting a proposal to deliver the service.
So, there will not be any exploration of alternative methods to deliver rural transportation services including on demand technology solutions; there will not be any exploration of working with existing transit service providers to alter existing routes or introduce jumper buses. Instead, there will be an RFP for a circuitous route that will service all users poorly. Poor service is not a successful design strategy in principle and even worse when there is a user pay component to it.
It is clear that there has been much movement of the County’s understanding of the precariousness of its legal position in funding this proposed system. Between July and the report this week the County has made significant changes to try to characterize its involvement as a grantor and not the proponent. Having to reissue the Request for Proposal so that it can be issued under the Township name is just one example. But this is extremely disingenuous. And fundamentally the Municipal Act prevents the County from passing bylaws for services that it does not have jurisdiction over. There is nothing that can be done to resolve the Municipal Act conflict as long as there is County funding of which over 40% of each dollar collected is from the citizens of the 'Friendly City' or a change in the spheres of jurisdiction."
Warden Martin says they have put out a new request for proposals and he doesn't see the service starting this year. He expects the earliest it would start is the Spring or Summer of 2021.
You can read more about the proposed transit service online here.
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