Latest in #SaveSTC

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release, April 28, 2021

Canadian Transportation Agency rules favourably in decision

In a precedent making decision in Canada, the Canadian Transportation Agency ruled against “Rider Express”. Saskatchewan’s disability community applauds this decision to remove a discriminatory practice.

The Sask Party had promised that the private sector would fill the void left by the loss of the Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation (STC). A small number of companies tried to take over a few of the most profitable runs, but most gave up after a short time. Then, even Greyhound closed in Western Canada. One privately-owned company, “Rider Express,” has been successful running between major Western cities. It operates on a lowest-cost model and does not have wheelchair accessible buses.

Under both the Saskatchewan and Canadian Human Rights Codes, however, persons with disabilities have the right to access mobility services available to the general public, unless it does create undue hardship to the provider.

Knowing this, Terri Sleeva filed a complaint in November 2018 with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. Because Rider Express operates in Western Canada, she was referred to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, who then referred her to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA). Sleeva received their decision in April 2021 indicating they ruled in her favour.

The CTA directed Rider Express that it must “meet its obligation to provide accessible services to persons with disabilities, (so) the Agency orders the respondent to provide bus services that are wheelchair accessible.”

Austerity cuts impact the vulnerable so that the privileged have lower taxes. People with disabilities were left without mobility for social interactions, attending medical appointments and a myriad of other things that contribute to our quality of life. This is not a competition between the abled versus the disabled. Let’s remember that Saskatchewan’s motto is “From Many Peoples Strength.”

For further information, please contact Terri Sleeva”

 

Greyhound Sucks

And the feckless politicians who haven’t replaced Greyhound are sucking too.

Officially one full year of stewing about governments ignoring Greyhoundexit! There's literally *no excuse* not to fund public long distance transport in a time of MMIWG, climate emergency, and escalating inequality & I wrote about it here: https://t.co/0qowNrrscw #cdnpoli

— Bronwen Tucker 🌅 (@bronwentucker) July 9, 2019

“About $13.5 billion a year of general taxpayer funds go to maintaining our road network, and without affordable bus routes or rail alternatives, this amounts to a handsome kickback for car owners.”

“If we assume the costs for a national system would be roughly proportional, it would run us around $550 million a year. Not nothing, but pretty paltry in comparison to that $13.5 billion to maintain our road network.”

Elizabeth May at UofR

2 weeks ago Elizabeth May was in Regina at the University and gave the following speech. In it she covered everything from our failed public transportation systems, to SNC-Lavalin’s punishment when they are convicted of corruption for their bribes regarding construction in Libya.

May in Regina, in March

It was the warmest it’s been in Regina in months today, and Elizabeth May came to town on what’s left of our bus system in Saskatchewan. I had the pleasure of driving her and her fiance, and her staff around Regina on Tuesday. I’ll share some videos later.

The bus stop in #YQR is a shadow of its big brother bus station (now cop shop) on Osler St.
There's even a long broken @SaskTel payphone in front of it.@CityofRegina hasn't even made it a bus stop without a meter in front.@MarcGarneau and @PremierScottMoe should do better. pic.twitter.com/AYoODXFghe

— Saskboy (@saskboy) March 13, 2019

more to come…

#SaveSTC: Does Saskatchewan Have a Developed Economy Still?

In the days around the time @SKGov shut down STC, I was on the phone with Greyhound Canada (PR people in Texas), trying to get an answer for why they weren't stepping into the role. It was apparent the SK Gov't hadn't spoken with Greyhound to get us coach bus service.

— Saskboy (@saskboy) February 7, 2019

The gov’t was totally negligent, not even doing as much to ensure people could get to their medical appointments as some guy in Regina could do with less than an hour of effort. If they had, they might have realized Greyhound was considering closure, & STC would corner market. And Hargrave and Carr have remained recklessly partisan and heartless as Saskatchewan people and cross-Canada travelers alike are left without mainstream inter-city/province/country bus service. It leaves people questioning if we’re even a developed economy anymore.

If you’re driving across Canada, and your car breaks down in Regina, you can’t leave it by train, bus, or by hitchhiking (not legally). The government only just barely authorized ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft.

The train station is a casino only, the bus depot is a cop shop & vacant building, and the airport can’t be reached by bus/bike/walking. There are plenty of friendly and sympathetic people who’ll give you a ride if you ask, but for some demographics that’s too dangerous to contemplate.

Busless

Saskatchewan used to bustle, but soon it will be busless. It would literally rather provide mobility to tarsands than people.

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/i-dont-like-the-sound-of-it-one-bit-sask-riders-react-to-end-of-greyhound-in-province/

https://thestarphoenix.com/business/we-simply-cant-leave-people-stranded-by-the-road-alberta-expands-rural-bus-service-pilot-project/

“The announcement came 14 months after the Saskatchewan government shut down the money-losing Saskatchewan Transportation Co.”

That’s a bad perspective Star Phoenix. There is no expectation to make profit on public services. You wouldn’t say, “Shut down the money-losing Plains Hospital”, for example.

 

“Since Greyhound made their announcement, we simply can’t leave people stranded by the road,” Notley said in Medicine Hat on Wednesday.

“Rural Albertans, and rural Alberta communities, make an enormous contribution to our province and we owe it to them to protect the transportation options that they have.”

Don’t Do That

The pompous Saskatchewan Minister of Bad Ideas, serving under the skillfully bad leadership of Premier Brad Wall, has asked people who’ve lost bus service, to just stop hitchhiking, because he doesn’t like to see it.

“People have always hitchhiked, and we don’t like to see that and hopefully they’ll stop doing that,” said Hargrave.

Next he may suggest, if it wouldn’t be a bother, could they crawl into a hole and die somewhere out of sight too?

Will Mandryk Eat His Privatization Crow?

Has anyone watched Mandryk eat crow about this doozy of a column defending Wall’s last campaign yet?

“NDP must get off privatization merry-go-round“

“On Tuesday, Wall emphatically said “no” to selling SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI and even STC. He reminded voters he signed the old NDP Crown Corporation Protection Act and noted his only proposed change to that law is on the sale of liquor stores.

Yet there was Broten, becoming the fourth straight NDP leader telling us of their opponent’s hidden agenda to sell off all Crown corporations, including SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SGI, STC, etc.”

“Broten has a smoking gun. Don’t let it get around, but … pssst …. Saskatchewan is running a deficit.

 

“He’s not talking about his plans for privatization, but we know, in his desire to go after quick, one-time money … anything is on the table for him.” Broten said.

 

Well, there you have it. What more proof could anyone possibly need? Wall and the Sask. Party intend to commit political suicide by first being forthright about selling liquor stores, then lying to the voters about selling off everything else.

 

So why does the NDP keep doing this?

There is the sentimentality.”

Ugh. He even mocked the smoking gun(s). Maybe he’s just sentimental about beating up on the NDP when they don’t even deserve it, instead of when they do.

This May, Wall closed STC, and changed the law in order to sell off half of SaskTel, SGI, SaskEnergy, etc. for a quick buck and to destroy public services in the hope that the private sector offers them instead. STC has been shut for weeks now, and Greyhound has expressed an interest in NOT operating buses on profitable bus routes in Saskatchewan. We went from having the best inter-city bus line in Canada, to NO bus service between the province’s largest cities of over a half million people collectively.

Mandryk’s column defending the Premier’s campaign deception, when he should have known better, helped make this possible.

—

Mar 18, 2016 11:24am

 

Media: ‘Why won’t both parties stop talking privatization?’

3rd party: ‘Change Crowns to public-owned co-operatives.’

Media: *silence* then ‘Why won’t the NDP stop talking about Crowns?’

Wall Built A Saskatchewan You Can’t Easily Leave

Saskatchewan Blogger Tammy Robert wrote about the bad governance of Brad Wall.

So Brad Wall had his Finance Minister write about the character of Tammy Robert.

Meanwhile, Wall’s Government has brought about a very justified human rights complaint by a Cree woman who wants to save the lives of people she hasn’t even met. That’s what the Premier should want to do, but clearly he’s more preoccupied with what’s written about him in Macleans.

3 years ago, a week before I died (temporarily), Regina City Council made illegal the Sask Party’s solution to STC’s closure. You can’t even thumb a ride to get away from Regina if you’re stuck here. WALL: That spells prosperity. Regina has a Wall, and you can’t walk, hop a train, or take a bus to get around it.

 

The Core Of the Problem Is Austerity

Then you proclaimed "Transportation Week" because “Saskatchewan’s transportation industry … is vital to the success of our economy."

— John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) June 7, 2017

"you have to ask the question; is [a bus] the core function of government?" -You
Is it transportation perhaps?
Yes!#TransportationWeak

— John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) June 7, 2017

In the Saskatchewan Legislature Thursday, Premier Brad Wall says a decision to stop STC bus service and lay-off 250 people did not come easy.

Wall says the decision was difficult but ridership had declined significantly.

“As ridership declines and the costs increase, that per-passenger subsidy is well up over 90-dollars,” said Premier Brad Wall. “Almost 100-dollars per passenger, Mr. Speaker. And at some point you have to ask the question; is that the core function of government? To subsidize to 90-dollars per passenger for the bus company?”

STC’s the very definition of a “sustainable core service“! It costs less than a municipal transit service!

@PremierBradWall March 22, 2017:
#skbudget outlines a 3yr plan to balance: controlled spending, sustainable core services, less reliance on resource rev & keep econ strong.

==

There is presently no replacement bus service as the Minister indicated there would be. People are being stranded daily now, in Saskatoon and Regina even, unable to directly get to the other city without desperately going through Winnipeg, hitchhiking (illegally in Regina) or flying on expensive airline tickets.

Today, and last week, Greyhound’s website indicates “no service available” between Regina and Saskatoon! I’ve been in contact with Greyhound perhaps more than the incompetent Saskatchewan Government, to try and fix this problem.

There are companies other than Greyhound applying to operate in Saskatchewan, but the government has dragged on with deciding, until after the deadline arbitrarily set for STC’s privatization closure and subsequent sell off.

“The province is confident many of the routes that STC covered will be taken over by other privately owned companies.
Minister Responsible Joe Hargrave says they have already received an offer from a major bus company to take over some routes that will be cancelled when STC is done and Saskatchewan is the only province that still operates a bus company like STC.”

The Highway Traffic Board is supposed to be independent but……
“The HTB is, according to its website, a “completely independent body” that consists of members appointed by the Sask. Party government.
Its chair, Bill Missal, is a long-time Saskatchewan Party supporter who has, according to Elections Saskatchewan, donated to the Sask. Party.
He has also worked with Sask. Party MLA and former Highways Minister Don McMorris at election time.”

You might also like:
https://saskboy.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/weak-transportation-week/
https://saskboy.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/transportation-not-meeting-demand/
https://saskboy.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/stc-bus-shut-down-by-callous-saskparty/