Twelve municipalities in the Edmonton region have given their nod of approval to creating a single, integrated regional transit commission.
The regional transit services commission (RTSC) transition team announced March 11 it now has enough support to make an official application to the Government of Alberta to stand up the commission.
The single regional system is set to hit the road in 2022, with the exception of Strathcona County, who decided on Feb. 11 not to lend its wheels to the commission.
Edmonton, followed by Strathcona County and St. Albert consecutively would have been the biggest financial contributors to the commission.
St. Albert was first to kick the regional commission into high gear, with city council’s “yes” vote Feb. 3. Since then, 12 of 13 municipal members of the Edmonton Metropolitan Regional Board followed suit, after receiving the RTSC’s final business case in January.
St. Albert was set to have a 19-per-cent cost share allocation, paying on average $11 million annually. The RTSC’s January business case said transferring transit services to a regional commission could save St. Albert $80,000 per year.
Regionally, reducing the amount of buses passing each other on the road could result in savings of up to $3.4 million when the commission is fully functional.
RTSC chair and St. Albert Coun. Wes Brodhead told the Gazette it was “gratifying” to see 12 municipalities sign on.
“I believe it’s a good idea, and when there’s a good idea and people work hard to bring it to fruition, when there’s a general acceptance, and it grows beyond just one person’s idea or two people’s idea, it becomes a coalition of the willing – it’s very gratifying to see that happen,” he said.
Brodhead added he was more surprised by Strathcona County dropping out than to see the overwhelming support from other municipalities. For a year, there were 13 municipalities around the table, building the model each municipality wanted, he added.
If the RTSC's application is successful, the transition team plans to stand the commission next year. Before the RTSC can make its final application to the Alberta government, however, there is still some work to be done.
Without Strathcona County’s involvement – which was set to share 26 per cent of the financial burden – Brodhead said the team will have to reconfigure the commission’s business model. He added the business case “is still viable.”
“There’s some that still need to see a lot of the work completed. I know a couple (municipalities) have said we are in, but we do need a couple of questions answered,” Brodhead said.
Some of that work will include amending the business case, digging deeper into capital asset planning, re-drawing bus routes and drafting bylaws.
Mayor Cathy Heron said this is a “huge win” for regional transit, but that it also says a lot about the mayors and councillors in the region and their dedication to regional service provision.
“There's this really positive energy about regional service delivery, that the transit is just an example of,” she said. “It's gonna be a different future, I think, for this region, because of the circumstances we're in right now. We can't all be doing things individually.”
Timelines are more fluid now, with the Alberta government slowing down during the current COVID-19 pandemic, but Brodhead said the transition team still hopes to make its application in a “timely manner” and hopefully by the end of May.
Municipalities who will be part of the commission include: Edmonton, St. Albert, Beaumont, Devon, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Leduc County, Morinville, Parkland County, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Sturgeon County.
