A Grey Transit Route bus operated by Driverseat. (supplied photo)
Bruce County Council has approved funding to help support the operation of Grey Transit Route 5.
The money will help pay for the transit service, which links Owen Sound with Shallow Lake, Hepworth, and Wiarton for the remainder of 2024.
According to a report that was presented to council, if the expense of the route wasn’t covered by both Bruce County and the Municipality of South Bruce Peninsula, then the operation of Route 5 would end as of September 2nd of this year.
In order to continue to the end of the year, the $53,000 expense would have to be split between the county and South Bruce Peninsula.
Council passed the motion to provide $26,500 to Route 5, with the other half approved by South Bruce Peninsula Council for the municipality’s share.
Councillor Luke Charbonneau says that with the provincial funding running out for Route 5, it makes him worry about the efforts to create a stable public transit service in his own municipality of Saugeen Shores.
“I just don’t see any way that we can have a sustainable rural transit service without a pretty significant amount of subsidy from the province, or from some other level of government.”
Several councillors voiced their concerns about having the route end, and the impact on the users of the service.
“Every meeting, every council I’ve been on have talked about rural transit – I don’t know how to solve it,” says South Bruce Peninsula mayor Jay Kirkland. “This was a beginning of a portion of rural transit. It was heavily used in summertime, [and] that showed the employment going to Sauble Beach and [other] areas, but I don’t know the answer. Someone… [needs] to show us how to do rural transit, because something needs to change.”
Based on a Rider Survey that was held by Grey County, Route 5 had approximately 3,172 riders between September 2022 and August 2023.
Bruce County’s contribution of the funding is coming from the Business Sustainability Loan, which was left over from the Transit Demand & Feasibility Study.