After years of attempts, and failures, County council will investigate the possibility of public transportation between Minden and Haliburton.
Coun. Bob Carter raised the idea at a Sept. 27 council meeting. The Minden Hills mayor said, “we have been looking at transportation for, obviously, a number of years prior to me getting on this council. It’s been noted how it affects the community that we don’t have anything.”
Carter is in his first term as a County councillor. Prior to his arrival, the County spent two terms grappling with the issue but was unable to deliver anything substantive. A transportation task force, and a volunteer rural transportation options group, ended with no action taken in 2019 after spending nearly $50,000.
The County still has more than $200,000 in a transportation reserve. The lack of public transportation is identified in the County’s community safety and well-being plan. In addition, while first-year projects are not eligible for provincial gas tax funding, they are in second and subsequent years.
Carter said he had not necessarily been “wildly” in favour of some of the past proposals, “because all too often people try to put everything in there… that you have custom call-up and dial-up, picks you up at your home. It becomes very difficult to try to determine what the cost of something like that would be.”
‘This is something we need to do’
He said his ask is simply to start a shuttle route between Minden and Haliburton six days a week. He said it would provide access to key buildings, such as Hyland Crest longterm care home in Minden, the Staanworth Non-Profit Housing Corporation, Highland Wood LTC at Haliburton hospital, Extendicare Haliburton, the Kawartha LakesHaliburton Housing Corporation in Haliburton and the ER in Haliburton.
“Places where there are many people who don’t have cars, either because of age or finances and so on… it would link those people to some of the key commercial resources in the two centres and to health care.”
Carter said they now have a “significant” problem in Minden Hills, with people not having access to the Minden ER. “I think this is something we need to do.”
He further emphasized it would be a starting point, “the spine if you will” running between the centres, with future offshoots to places such as Wilberforce and West Guilford “and so on”.
“But we have the one core in the middle. This would serve about 50 per cent of the population in Haliburton County. I see it as a starting point and something that is a benefit to the whole County. We have been putting money aside for this, so I’m proposing we have a two-year trial and see how it goes.”
He acknowledged there would still be decisions, such as location of bus stops, which might be done by a committee, and fares. For now, it “shows good faith for what the population is asking us to do.”
Warden Liz Danielsen, who is mayor of Algonquin Highlands, said while it would be a good start, and she was not opposed to exploring it, she would argue it would not service the entire community. She said all four municipalities pay into the transportation reserve, but this would only benefit Dysart et al and Minden Hills, not Algonquin Highlands or Highlands East.
Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said Carter’s notice of motion seemed to be a reaction to the loss of the Minden ER, but was curious to see what the results of a request for proposals would generate. She was also interested in a fee structure aimed at cost recovery.
Coun. Murray Fearrey thought it was a good starting point, and wants more details.
Coun. Cec Ryall said he was in favour of putting out an RFQ, to “give us an idea of where we’re going, what we’re doing, I’m not saying pick up where the task force left off.” He was hesitant, however, about all County taxpayers contributing to ongoing operations if the service only ran in two townships.
Coun. Lisa Schell said, “in my mind, this was just a starting point that would eventually, if possible, grow into being a Countywide service, not just in Minden and Dysart. But I think right now that’s probably the two larger centres where you could maybe have an idea of how it may look, or how popular it may be, and what the cost would be.”
Council voted to put out a request for proposals.
