Bruce County Ready to Explore Potential Transit System
by Bob Montgomery
The Commissioner of Bruce County's Community Development Office says the county is looking ahead to the development of a transit system.
The county completed a one-year study at the end of last year, with the help of a consultant, that looked at the transportation needs and demands across Bruce County, as well as holding several stakeholder engagement sessions. They delivered the report to county council in early December. Claire Dodds says they determined there were seven very diverse areas of need and their consultant identified some of the challenges in building one traditional transit system that would meet all of those needs.
Dodds says funding will be a significant challenge because the provincial program that has helped other transit systems in the past is not available to new applicants and in fact is scheduled to expire at the end of 2024. So existing systems will no longer have access to that program.
“So we're in a situation that anything the county would take on in terms of transportation would be a direct cost to our tax base,” she said. Dodds adds, Bruce County as well as other counties are hoping to develop a transit system. She also mentions the counties that already have them are hoping some form of government funding will be available in the future because the systems that are up and running have made a positive impact in the communities where they're running.
Dodds adds they would also hope to join other systems once they got up and running. “Anything that we would look at in terms of setting up a transit system, we would want to make sure that there is a connection into surrounding counties and part of a larger network,” says Dodds. She adds, “We know that many of our residents are travelling outside of the county on a regular basis, often to Owen Sound, to Kitchener-Waterloo, to locations in Huron County and Wellington County so they would want to provide some inter-connectivity.”
Dodds also notes that the Ministry of Transportation is conducting a study for Southwestern Ontario that is looking at the transportation network as a whole and all of the counties are represented in that group. They have been advocating with the Ministry on the importance of being able to form a network that would help people travel throughout Southwestern Ontario.
Dodds says they are currently talking with other counties that share their interest in developing a transit system and they hope to create a transportation portal for their website so people will be able to go to one place and get accurate, up to date information about what is currently available and what they hope to do in the future. They're also working with Bruce Power on a ride-sharing program.
