The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor The impact to Flin Flon and the rest of northern Manitoba would be devastating. Which is why the provincial government must be commended for ensuring the survival of Greyhound services. Last week, the province gave the bus line $3.9 million in exchange for a guarantee of service until March 31, 2012. It was the second time the province has subsidized Greyhound, and it might not be the last. This whole business of handing over cash to Greyhound began in the fall of 2009, when the company threatened to pack up and leave the province. Greyhound, which has the government-secured monopoly on non-charter highway bussing in our province, was perturbed that its license requires it to provide passenger service to routes it says are unprofitable. Among them is the Flin Flon-Thompson route and all service in and out of Snow Lake. So Greyhound did what today's corporations do when faced with financial hardship: it asked for a bag full of taxpayer money. We live in an era where, as MacLean's straightforwardly put it, "Just about every industry in Canada is getting some kind of handout." Greyhound must have looked around and wondered, "Where's our piece of that action?" Thus the debate rages as to whether tax dollars should be funneled into a bus company that by its own admission has low ridership on a number of routes. On one side are people like former federal transportation minister John Baird, who dismissed Greyhound's 2009 move as an attempt to "shake down" taxpayers. On the other are people like Flin Flon MLA Gerard Jennissen, who believe highway bus service must be maintained because it is a vital link between northern and urban centres. Many people feel the way Mr. Baird does. Mr. Jennissen was not happy about Greyhound's maneuver either, but his attitude is the right one for northern Manitoba. Whether it is patients travelling for medical appointments or cash-strapped students heading off to university, northerners need this affordable transportation option to reach Winnipeg, Brandon and centres beyond. Stranded Not everyone has access to a car. A lot of seniors (a fast-growing demographic in Flin Flon) can no longer drive. Flying is simply too costly for a large segment of the population. Without a bus, these people are stranded. If Greyhound ever makes good on its threat to leave, the province must, as Mr. Jennissen says it will, step in to ensure a continuation of service. There are only two ways to do this: contract another bus company or set up a Crown corporation in the mould of the Saskatchewan Trans-portation Company. Neither alternative is perfect. A private company may simply find that Greyhound was right, that bus service in Manitoba is not feasible as long as those money-losing routes are mandated. And a public company could prove costly to taxpayers, with bureaucrats crawling from every orifice as is so often the case in government. Yet as long as the government ensures northerners are not effectively stranded in their communities, and as long as it does not write a blank cheque, it will be money well spent. Local Angle runs Fridays.11/4/11
