Edmonton city council could soon be discussing a proposal from St. Albert city council to start talking about a combined transit operation.
Mayor Nolan Crouse and Coun. Wes Brodhead met with Edmonton counterparts Mayor Don Iveson and Coun. Michael Walters in mid-February to discuss a motion passed by St. Albert city council last September.
The motion from Brodhead prompted St. Albert’s mayor to reach out to Edmonton to begin initial discussions between the municipalities about what a regional transit authority would have to include.
Brodhead said the meeting went well.
“To that end we asked Edmonton to consider what a frame of reference would be to begin the conversations around creating a single operating entity,” Brodhead said. “We have to be able to understand what that implies for both communities, what the benefits are, what the risks are.”
Brodhead wants St. Albert and Edmonton to explore the idea together outside of the Capital Region Board’s transit committee because it will be easier to get two communities to come to an agreement and work to include others rather than starting with several trying to negotiate.
“The reason why I made the motion in the first place is because those questions need to be answered not at the CRB table but rather at the councils of the region. And to start the ball rolling quite honestly, they need to be answered in Edmonton city council and St. Albert city council,” Brodhead said.
Walters agreed the meeting went well.
“There’s an appetite in the region for some form of inter-municipal transit,” Walters said.
The issue has been studied at a governance level for a few years now, Walters said.
“It’s probably wise for us to start thinking practically about the operations side of it,” he said. “I think what we agreed on in that meeting is likely best that a couple of the major operators to begin with like St. Albert and Edmonton sit down and start to sketch out what might be a mechanism for a single entity … transit operator in the region.”
Walters and Iveson will have to take it to their council colleagues. Walters said there are a number of other factors that need to be considered.
Those factors are items like the Capital Region Board’s growth plan update, cost-sharing for a regional transit entity and ensuring that provincial transit grants continue to be available.
“These are just toe-in-the-water conversations for sure,” Walters said, but “the toe in the water here is actually beginning to think about operationalizing … so I think that’s an important step.”
