By Shaun Penner

Regional Handibus Feasibility

Interest in creating regional handibus service being gauged by Wembley Town Council

Nov 18, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Wembley Town Council is gauging the interest of fellow Grande Prairie area municipalities about re-visiting the Regional Handibus Feasibility Study, which was undertaken in 2018.

In a letter issued to other municipal governments of the Grande Prairie area (the County of Grande Prairie, the Towns of Sexsmith, Beaverlodge and Wembley and the Village of Hythe), Wembley Mayor Chris Turnmire has sought to gauge the interest of revisiting the study and its recommendations, which looked at creating a regional accessible transit service for seniors and the disabled.

Extensive consultation was done between January and June of 2018 thanks to a provincial grant to investigate the feasibility of such a service. However, that was put on pause with the implementation of the County Connector pilot project later that year.

Ultimately, due to low ridership, the County Connector was scrapped in August of 2020, which has led to the idea of a regional handibus being re-explored.

Turnmire says though the County Connector didn’t work out, he still sees a need to provide a transit option to those who have no other means of getting to the City for appointments, meetings and shopping, among other things.

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“The study actually said that ‘there is information in here to support that this could be pursued further’. However, to do that, it would need to be a working group formed from each of the municipalities.”

Though Turnmire says the Town of Wembley does offer a community handibus, its service is limited. With that, the report suggests that creating a regional service would allow for greater flexibility without raising costs too much.

“This wouldn’t be a service to generate revenue from, but it would be a service to the residents that require that service. Over and above, perhaps, what the community handibus would provide.”

One municipality that is onboard for the reboot of discussions is the Town of Sexsmith, whose council unanimously voted in favour of restarting talks about exploring a regional service earlier this week.

Sexsmith Mayor Kate Potter echoes that working collaboratively as a region could provide greater service than what smaller communities like Wembley and Sexsmith would have to ability to offer on their own.

“Maybe there is an opportunity then for us as communities to work together, where there might be a bus one day in Sexsmith, one day in Wembley, one day in Beaverlodge, one day in Hythe, but it’s the same bus,” said Potter. “That becomes a shared resource, rather than every community investing in its own bus or its own program.

“Really, when we work together as a region, that makes a huge difference as far as the cost, but also the benefit for people. We can be a lot more nimble and flexible.”

Potter says that though the County Connector didn’t necessarily fit what was needed for the smaller communities it served, citing limited route times and long periods between pick up and drop off times, a service more tailored to those that need it most may work out for the better.

“So that, at the end of the day, all of our residents are able to get the care that they need, or the services, or even just groceries and things like that, that they need from the City,” said Potter. “Because, in reality, we can’t offer everything here in Sexsmith that they can get in the City.”

Turnmire says Wembley Town Council will wait to hear back from all municipalities before moving forward with next steps.