By Mark Squibb/December 9, 2021
The City of Mount Pearl is not getting the best ‘bang for their buck’ when it comes to the Metrobus service within the City.
That seemed to be the general consensus after the topic was raised during the November 30 public council meeting.
The discussion began when councilor Jim Locke voted to pay a number of invoices, a motion that is usually made, seconded, and approved without much discussion.
One invoice among those 10 however stood out to councilor Mark Rice — $94,559 to be paid to St. John’s for October’s Metrobus service fees.
“The amount that we’re paying out for those fees monthly, and quarterly, and on an annual basis, is substantial,” said Rice. “I would like to revisit this going forward and see if there are other cost saving measures, or if we could have a conversation with Metrobus and the City of St. John’s to see if the fees could be reduced or even if they could increase their routes. Because we have a lot of people in the City who use this service, and it’s really important to them.”
He noted that costs for services across the board seem to be increasing, and that it’s often taxpayers who have to bear the brunt of those increases.
Councilor Bill Antle said he agreed one hundred percent with Rice.
“We’ve been talking about Metrobus for a while,” said Antle. “For councilor Rice’s benefit, we pay seven dollars a kilometre for Metrobus. And if we look at these routes, on some of these routes there’s not enough riders. I think we need to look at Metrobus as a whole, and what is and what isn’t working for us.”
Deputy Mayor Nicole Kieley then spoke to the issue.
“I feel like this is an important topic to talk about as we move forward, around transportation generally, and the effectiveness around what we have, with regards to cost, resources, and what our residents are getting out of our transportation system,” said Kieley. “If people are not utilizing the service, why? Certainly, transportation is necessary throughout any urban area such as Mount Pearl, and as we are looking to attract and encourage young families and diverse individuals and professionals looking at greener opportunities to move around our city, this is a great opportunity. I support councilor Rice’s concerns and certainly councilor’s Antle’s concerns around the cost, and additionally, looking at the effectiveness and maybe even revisiting what exactly residents require from our transportation.”
On the topic of paying for regional services, Antle pointed out the City pays $460,000 roughly a month for fire protection services to the St. John’s Regional Fire Department.
“The residents should know that we do pay our fair share. The fire department costs us about $5 million a year, and it’s going up,” said Antle. “It’s a service that we provide at a cost. So, we do pay our own way with the fire department and Metrobus. It’s important to note that.”
Councilor Isabelle Fry added her thoughts to the mix.
“Public transportation is important to have, and clearly the system we have now isn’t working,” said Fry. “And it comes at a high cost, so I would like to look at this a little further, and see if there is a way to streamline, instead of meandering throughout the entire city, maybe have more direct points of contact.”
Fry said she recently spoke with a resident who frequently rides the Metrobus who suggested that council get on the bus near the Village Mall and travel a route to take note of how many folks use the bus.
Locke said the town did meet with Metrobus some years back to discuss inefficiencies in the Mount Pearl service.
“They had a certain distance that they deemed acceptable for riders and where to place, but we also discussed at our corporate services committee meeting earlier last month at looking at the whole transit system and, to the deputy mayor’s point, are we getting the bang for our buck?”
Locke said previous councils had discussed having an internal busing system within Mount Pearl.
In addition to the monthly service fee, Mount Pearl paid $24,799 for Metrobus accessible services from July to September.
