Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shaun Penner

Disabled Transportation

Disabled Transportation Society looking at shuttering services due to current funding levels

May 29, 2019 | 2:15 PM

The Disabled Transportation Society says a lack of funding and support from the city has forced them to cut back to essential services starting June 1, while possibly having to close their doors for good at the end of June.

The non-profit group announced today that due to current funding levels, service will only be offered to wheelchair clients who require transit for medical, education or employment reasons. All other services will be halted, which includes services to and from events like Stompede, as well as grocery shopping and other activities.

“This is a difficult and upsetting decision that the Board is having to make,” said Board Chair Barry Menard. “The city is refusing to credit the recent restructuring of the service. They appear to have their own agenda, and due to the decrease in funding we can no longer run the service.”

The organization, which has been operating in Grande Prairie for the past 45 years, says they have sent multiple requests to the city for more funding, but they have been met with what they call “resistance and hostility”.

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The city had granted DTS over $600,000 back in December through the City’s Community Group Funding budget. In a release, the city also states that they have increased funding by 26% since 2015 to DTS, and have a commitment that would bring total funds to nearly $1-million in support in 2019.

DTS was also granted $100,000 from the County of Grande Prairie at their May 6 council meeting through its Transportation Grant Funding budget. However, Menard says that just simply isn’t enough to continue to operate.

“It’s very hard to continue on day-to-day. We’re basically hand-to-mouth right now, and that’s either got to stop by increasing the funding, or we’ll have to dissolve.”

This is something that is taken very personally by Karen Bainbridge, who is the Secretary for DTS, as well as a user of its service herself. She notes the door-to-door service to all users is the only effective way for her and other users to get around town, as she does not see public transit as a safe or realistic alternative.

“The service is being needed by more and more people,” said Bainbridge. “It’s really difficult and it’s going to impact a lot of people.”

The ideal solution for DTS is to continue working towards the city taking over operations. The city, represented by Mayor Bill Given, sat down for a closed-door meeting on Wednesday with the Society to discuss how to move forward. Though Given was not made available for comment following the meeting, the city did say in a press release following the meeting that they are committed to working with DTS and other funders to find the right path forward.

This is something that DTS has been pushing for since 2017. With the growing population and demand for the service, the operating budget has increased to $1.1 million according to Menard, which he says is not sustainable to be able to continue operations under a volunteer board of directors.

However, Menard wants to ensure that the city would keep all employees on if they did decide to take over, which includes 18 fully trained drivers. He also notes that the staff unionized with CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) back in 2017, which is the same union staff members with the City fall under.

“We would definitely encourage the city to use that expertise and transition them as well,” said Menard. “We encourage them to take them into their fold.”

Menard noted that certain contracts that have already been agreed upon will continue to be honored, which include local school boards and the County.

DTS and the City will continue to negotiate, and no decision on the future of the Society beyond the month of June has been finalized.