Striking a committee to look at what sort of options the city has when it comes to offering transit service now that Greyhound has officially informed them that it won’t be providing drivers and other services as of Oct. 31 seems like a reasonable reaction on the surface, but if you look a little deeper, perhaps it’s little more than public relations busywork of the type that all of us engage in when we feel like the most important thing is to appear to be doing something.
In reality, the City of Thompson has probably already narrowed the potential options down to two: discontinue transit service entirely or contract for drivers, maintenance and storage with a company that is all but predetermined.
A press release announcing the creation of the ad hoc committee, which will include councillors, city administrative staff and members of the public who already serve as community representatives on the city’s public works and finance committees, was sent out on Aug. 14, a day after the letter notifying the city of Greyhound’s intent to end its service contract was officially received by council and about four days after the information first became public when it was posted on the city’s website as part of the agenda for the Aug. 13 council meeting. Considering the speed at which government can sometimes work, people can be forgiven if they believe this to have been an extraordinarily timely response.
The truth is, however, that the announcement of the committee came nearly a month after Greyhound sent the city the letter on July 18 and more than three weeks after it was in the city’s possession. What’s more, it wasn’t as if the committee that was being announced had actually met yet or even did so last week. Their first meeting was scheduled for this week, when they would immediately get down to important business like electing a chair and then, presumably, discussing transit options.
Honestly, however, it’s not like that letter could possibly have been a surprise. On July 11, two days after Greyhound Canada announced that it was shutting down all of its routes in Western Canada, this newspaper said the decision “could even impact the City of Thompson, which will have to hire its own bus drivers.” The same day, online, we quoted Mayor Dennis Fenske, who said response to an inquiry that, “Given the extent of the announcement we will have to again examine our options that would fall between the extremes of no service to continuing to run what we currently have at the cost of the operation.” And the writing has been on the wall since at least the beginning of 2016, from which point Greyhound provided transit drivers and associated services on a month-to-month basis, rather than on a five-year contract as it did from 2011 through 2015. To truly be prepared, the city should have begun investigating other options at this time, though it may not have done much good, since no other company submitted a proposal to fulfill the contract when it was awarded to Greyhound in 2010.
Given all this, it seems like the establishment of the committee is little more than window dressing.
As stated in the press release, the committee will report back to council in early October. Assuming that they do so by the first council meeting of the month – and second-last one of this term – that falls on Oct. 1, that will leave just 30 days to make a decision and, if the decision is made to continue offering transit services, get a new company in place, before Greyhound says goodbye. But, in fact, the timeline will be even tighter, as a new council will be elected Oct. 24 and sworn in at the meeting on the following Monday. That means, if the decision is made to award the service contract that Greyhound has provided to another company, there will be two weeks to work out the details and present this new contract to council to approve – or not – the necessary funding.
Does two weeks seem like an awful lot of time to make such a decision? It certainly isn’t enough time for the city to hire its own drivers and arrange for storage and maintenance facilities, etc. Which is what leads to the conclusion presented above: the decision has already been made. The question is just, which one?
Although providing public transport is important, not only for the environment but also for those who cannot afford to drive or who have physical or mental conditions that prevent them from doing so, there is also an argument to be made that the cost of doing so is not something that Thompson can afford right now. In 2017, after deducting bus fares paid, it cost about $328,000 for the city to provide transit services – more than $6 per rider, which is three more times what those users pay themselves. Saving nearly a third of a million dollars must be attractive to a city that is looking at a $1.8 million drop in the amount it receives from Vale in lieu of property taxes next year. But as well-positioned as some of its members are to do so, given that the mayor is not continuing in politics, this council hasn’t proven itself to be overly willing to make unpopular – or even popular – decisions in order to significantly reduce spending.
So perhaps they are leaning towards the other option: awarding the contract to a predestined winner. If that is indeed the case, it seems likely that Thompson Bus could be the chosen one. Sure, they don’t have much in the way of employees or buses or other facilities right now, but they are local and seem to have a great relationship with the city, having hosted the press conference announcing their establishment in the foyer at City Hall, and are working closely with Thompson 2020, which distributed their draft schedule and price list recently; one of Thompson 2020’s team members – economic development officer Keisha Davis – is actually a city employee whose services have been provided to the Thompson 2020 initiative for the time being.
Mind you, this is merely speculation based on available facts and logic. Perhaps the committee looking at options has other ideas in mind and neither of these two predictions will prove to be correct. But it seems like there’s a pretty good chance that one of them will.
