Hanover is the latest municipality to pass a motion calling on the Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit (SMART) to investigate the possibility of amalgamation.
SMART Vice President and Hanover Councillor Warren Dickert says in the interest of cost savings and finding efficiencies it is time to explore the possibility of amalgamation of specialized transit systems across Grey and Bruce.
He says there are multiple agencies that supply specialized transit services across Grey and Bruce Counties creating a fractured service.
Dickert says the duplication of these services is a costly and inefficient way to operate a transit service.
As the cost for SMART to deliver services continues to rise impacting the burden on taxpayers, Dickert says now is the time to explore the amalgamation of specialized transit services across the two Counites.
As such Hanover has passed a resolution calling on SMART to explore the amalgamation of specialized transit services with Grey and Bruce counties and transition to a County wide operation to potentially reduce transit duplication and develop transit efficiencies.
Southgate and West Grey passed similar motions urging SMART to investigate amalgamation opportunities.
However, unlike Hanover’s motion, the Southgate and West Grey resolution did not specify ‘specialized transit’ but rather that Grey and Bruce Counties cooperatively explore amalgamation of services to reduce transit duplication.
Hanover is forwarding its motion to all Grey and Bruce municipalities in the hopes that they too will support this motion.