Once again, plans for a bus between Haliburton village and Minden Hills – with the possibility of one day expanding to Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East – have driven off the road because staff and council have deemed the cost to be too high. In a report to a County of Haliburton council meeting last week, director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, asked councillors to pump the brakes.
The County issued a request for proposals for an on-demand or hybrid transit service in the fall of 2025. They received four bids. However, Ovell said they were all more than double the $182,601.52 the County has in a transit reserve. “If County council still wishes to explore
transit solutions within the County, staff would recommend discussions during 2027 budget deliberations around annual contributions towards the transit reserve,” he said.
This term of County council has been trying to find an affordable provider since 2024 with no success.
Ovell added the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus has been discussing how the provincial government is working towards developing provincial framework to standardize ride-share rules. He said the goal is to improve service in rural areas and reduce municipal red tape as individual municipalities regulate and manage taxi and ride share licences.
Some towns subsidize rides
“It should be noted that if this were to take place, it would not guarantee a ride-share company would choose to operate in Haliburton County, with some businesses citing population density and geography as cost barriers to entering the marketplace in rural Ontario, with some seeking subsidies from local municipalities to offsetoperating costs.”
He said a recent example is Prince Edward County, which used $50,000 of its portion of the Municipal Accommodation Tax in 2023 to support a partnership with Uride. He noted the contribution was lowered to $30,000 in 2025.
“County staff will continue to monitor progress on the provincial legislation and will follow up with council should provincial legislation be updated.” Ovell added.
Coun. Bob Carter said the need for some form of public transportation “is not going to go away… particularly as the County’s population grows, and to more unsettled areas.” He agreed with what was being proposed but said, “I think the next step is we should ask staff to try to put together what it would cost for us to have transportation. In other words, what would the subsidy need to be. So, when we get into budgeting, we decide.” He said towns such as Peterborough heavily subsidize their transportation,supplemented by Trent University providing students with bus passes.
Coun. Jennifer Dailloux suggested it might be time to scrap a fixed route system, in favour of subsidizing private systems. She suggested they talk to organizations such as Point in Time, and SIRCH, as well as Haliburton Highlands Health Services. The latter two have trialled smaller transportation projects in the Highlands.
Coun. Murray Fearrey said with little commercial or industrial tax base, the cost will come on the backs of residential taxpayers.
CAO Gary Dyke said they are not stopping the discussion, and staff will be looking to reprioritize spending in future. “Transit will be an important part of this as we go forward.”
The Ontario government announced April 1 it is doubling its support for the Ontario Transit Investment Fund (OTIF) through the 2026 provincial budget, increasing it from $5 million to $10 million annually over the next three years. The OTIF supports the start-up and expansion of transit projects like new bus services, on-demand rideshare services and door-to-door transportation
