Free Family Day Activities in Medicine Hat (but Only if You Have Your Own Transportation)
MEDICINE HAT STILL HAS A TWO TIER SYSTEM BETWEEN THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS
Once again the free Family Day Festivities at the Big Marble Go Centre (BMGC) are restricted to people who have their own transportation or who can walk to the location because our busses don’t run on holidays.This affects people who use the Special Transit system as well. They are stuck in their homes.
(There are also free activities at Police Point Park but since transit doesn’t even go there, they were already restricted.)
For those of you who do not know, the BMGC is NOT centrally located, it is on the edge of the City. To the north is bald ass prairie, to the west is an industrial area. There are not a lot of neighbourhoods within walking distance.
We used to have transit service on holidays; I don’t know when they stopped it. My best guess is it was a casualty of the Financially Fit initiative.
(Isn’t it funny how when cuts need to be made the things that serve the poorest of us are the things that seem to be cut first? )
The focus of council has always seemed to be
Yeah, as a city we should have a transit system. We won’t make an efficient one that works, we’ll make it barely adequate for the peasants who cannot afford their own cars and who have no other choice.
This is reflected in this slide in the presentation given February 14 2022 to the Public Services Committee.
Pg 5 of the February 14 2022 Agenda Packet
Yes they really said TAXPAYER, not RESIDENTS.
I submit that ALL residents are taxpayers whether they are homeowners or not. By paying rent that covers all costs for the landowners (repairs, property taxes, mortgage payments etc), renters are actually paying the taxes for their landlords as well as enriching the landlords by increasing their wealth.
There was no Transit Presentation given at the February 22 2022 City Council meeting. These six Council members attended the Feb 14 2022 Public Services Committee meeting and were able to view the presentation. Minutes are here
Councillor Robins, Chair
Councillor Van Dyke, Vice Chair
Councillor Knodel committee member
Mayor Clark, ex-officio
Councillor Hider (observer)
Councillor McGrogan (observer)
At the 1:03:40 mark of the February 22 2022 City Council meeting (Youtube video) Councillor Robins issued a challenge to all council members to take the bus in 2022 and to take a picture of them doing it.
(On February 17 2024 I sent in a request to all council members asking if any council members accepted her challenge and when. I will let you know what response I receive.)
How can council members make decisions about transit when they won’t even take a ride on the bus?
I know at least one council member has made it very clear that they have no use for buses, preferring to drive their vehicle instead.
What Other Cities / Rural Regional Districts Do
I grew up in the Lower Mainland of BC, they had a fantastic transit system. We had service 365 days per year. On Sundays and holidays the transit operated at half capacity – instead of the bus coming every half hour, it came every hour. The hours were also shorter. Obviously we cannot expect the same kind of service large centres offer but we can take a page from another Alberta city our size.
Grande Prairie is a city that has about the same population as we do. They do NOT have their own utility company to subsidize anything but still manage to have a more useful bus system than Medicine Hat does. They operate later on Saturdays; they also operate on holidays with the exception of
Easter Sunday
Christmas Day
New Year’s Day
Holidays share the same schedule as Sundays. Grande Prairie Transit Ride Guide
We can also take a page from our neighbours in BC. Right now all children 12 and under ride for free in BC. (That is obviously a decision made at the provincial level but guess what? Our premier is one of our MLAs!)
Some areas in BC have expanded that to all under the age of 18. For example, the Sunshine Coast Regional District of BC has just under 30,000 people spread out over a rural area with many challenges. This September, all youth under the age of 18 will be able to ride the bus for FREE!
CBC Radio show re Sunshine Coast Free Transit for Youth
Oh yeah, they also have service on HOLIDAYS! The Sunshine Coast Regional District Ride Guide
This Transit For Teens research brief created by the Single Mothers Alliance in cooperation with the City of Vancouver BC gives some great arguments as to why transit should be free for teens.
Medicine Hat Transit Ride Guide
Not having holiday service creates a two-tier system in Medicine Hat between the Haves and the Have-Nots.
February 21 2022 I sent this letter to all of council.
Greetings;
This is being sent to all council members as I want all of you to have access to the same information. I know some of you are aware of some of this so please don’t take anything personally.
I am contacting you about the fact that we have no bus service on holidays. This creates a Two Tier System in Medicine Hat between the Haves and the Have-Nots.
On Family Day, BMGC has a bunch of free activities but it excludes the portion of our population that cannot afford a vehicle. These are arguably the people who would benefit the most from free activities and they have no way to even get there. Even if people lived within walking distance, it's very cold and we got a ton of snow recently.
Our city’s growth has stagnated. Immigrants are an easy way to increase our population but they tend to settle in larger centres where there is a transit service that serves them. Many hardworking immigrants have no credit history in Canada and so cannot buy a car, they must rely on transit. Many tourists prefer to use the bus system when they visit a city.
The latest info from the Public Services Committee in tomorrow’s agenda packet shows that most people currently using the bus are trying to get to work. However, they cannot work on holidays or late on Saturday or Sunday. Most entry level jobs are not 9-5 M-F. This severely limits their ability to make money.
In case you didn’t know it, they get paid time and half to work on holidays on top of their paid holiday making it double time and a half. For someone making minimum wage that’s a LOT of money. $15/hr at double time and a half is $37.50/hr, an extra $180 for an 8 hour day. Many minimum wage earners don't get benefits. Some of you might see this as mere pocket change or one evening out. For others it means being able to buy shoes for their kids or paying ever increasing utility bills.
Transit has always been seen as a drain but it should really be seen as an investment. The problem is the people making the decisions on transit spending (council members) don’t even take the bus. At least one council member on the Public Services Committee (PSC) did not even know that they used coins or about the DoubleMap App {changed to Find My Ride} (watch the public portion of the Feb 14 2022 PSC Meeting). I expected that in the 120 days since the election, council members would have taken the bus at least once. That is a serious omission when they are expected to make recommendations and decisions on transit spending.
(Here is the Find My Ride app. Very cool, it shows bus locations in real time.)
I am challenging all council members to take the bus for at least a week at all times of day to get an idea first hand of what it is like. This should be a requirement for everyone who sits on council before they make ANY decisions on the transit service. You will find that our operators are amazing but our routes and times of service sucks!
In the meantime, I’d like to see a survey of the people who currently do NOT take the bus and find out what the barriers are. We know why our current riders take the bus, it’s because they have no other choice. I look forward to seeing all of your reports about your adventures on the bus.
Thank you,
Kelly Allard
I only received responses from 4 Council Members.
Ramona Robins and Alison Van Dyke were already advocates for a better transit system; they helped pass the Fair Entry program to include transit passes.
Andy McGrogan said he would commit to taking the bus to get a better sense of the service.
Shila Sharps wanted to talk to the people taking the bus to find out what the issues were but did not commit to taking the bus herself.
My issue was that we need to talk to people who are NOT taking the bus and find out why, we all need to create a bus riding culture.
But Nobody Rides the Bus!
The way to get more people on busses is to create a bus riding culture. I spoke about this back in 2021 when I was running for council. Here’s how to do it.
1 Issue free bus passes to the under 18s.
The busses are already running.
Kids that take school busses are used to the bus taking forever to get someplace. They use that time to visit with their friends and parents will not have to drive them.
Keeping the bus fares in their pockets means that they will have more money to spend in local stores and restaurants.
There is also the benefit that the students can stay longer at school to do homework, attend practice, or go home earlier if they only had one exam to write, not to mention they have another way of getting to school if they miss their school bus.
2 Have Council Members and all of the senior administration ride the bus at least once a month and publicize the hell out of it.
This will encourage other people to leave their cars at home. It will also show the city that nobody is above riding the bus.
Hell, they could even do an impromptu Town Hall on the bus.
3 Have the bus run later on Saturday, at least as late as they do on Friday.
It makes no sense to have the services stop at 7:15 on a Saturday night.
4 Reinstate Holiday service.
There are many people who still have to work on holidays. Many of the people who do not have a car are making minimum wage; paying for a taxi is a hardship.
It is reasonable to reduce the service hours like we already have on weekends.
5 Expand service to include the Event Centre, aka Co-op Place.
If you want people to work there, they need a way to get there.
For patrons who wish to indulge in drinking alcohol, it will allow them another way to get home safely.
Improvements in the Last two years
We now have all day passes.
We have the Fair Entry discount for bus passes which has increased ridership.
We now have digital payment where you just need to tap your pass, your phone, or your ticket.
We do have some expanded bus routes but still no service to Box Springs, Police Point Park or holiday service.
Transit is an essential service
it is never expected to make money
If we spend money on making it actually useful
we will have more fare paying passengers
more bus riders means fewer cars
decreasing the wear and tear on our roads
For council members who will be enjoying the festivities tomorrow, I want you to think of how many people
were not able to participate because they have no way to get there.
in wheelchairs who cannot participate because Special Transit is not running. (Even if they could afford a taxi that accommodates wheelchairs, you must book at least a day in advance.)
who have minimum wage jobs have to pay for a taxi to get to work.
If Medicine Hat wants to call itself inclusive, we must include the poor.
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