St. Albert has officially asked the province to create a regional transit commission in Edmonton – one that could eventually let people ride the bus from Morinville to Fort Saskatchewan.
Beaumont, Devon, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Morinville, Spruce Grove, St. Albert and Stony Plain submitted a joint application to the province June 11 asking them to create the Regional Transit Service Commission in the Edmonton region.
These communities, plus the counties of Leduc, Parkland, Strathcona and Sturgeon, had spent the last three years studying the merits of an integrated transit system, which had been billed as a way to save money. The four counties have since bowed out of the group, although Sturgeon and Parkland may stay on in an advisory role.
“It is a red letter day,” St. Albert Coun. Wes Brodhead, who chairs the commission’s transition team, said of this request to the province.
This commission would let people ride from St. Albert to the Edmonton International Airport on one bus system and save money in the process, Brodhead said. It would also help this region compete internationally by providing a seamless way for workers to move around and demonstrating how governments here could work together.
“It’s a big step for the region, to be quite honest,” Brodhead said, as there had been many failed attempts by this region to come together on transit.
Many people in Morinville work outside of town, and right now they have to drive to work, said Morinville Mayor Barry Turner. This commission would bring transit to the community, and with it more jobs and people.
“Simply put, it is an opportunity,” he said of the commission.
Smaller savings
Brodhead said a transit commission would essentially add more regional routes to St. Albert’s local service. St. Albert would still run its own buses, but those vehicles could end up travelling to Fort Saskatchewan.
A June report commissioned by the transition team found a regional transit system would save area governments $2.2 million a year – down from the $5.5 million it would have saved had the counties stayed on. Once you account for start-up costs, the commission would be cheaper to run than the region’s current transit networks by early 2027.
Brodhead said the counties’ decision to leave means less service for the commission’s members. There won’t be a bus to the Edmonton Garrison, for example, nor a peak express route from Fort Saskatchewan to east Edmonton. The routes that connect directly with St. Albert and Morinville were unaffected.
“Quite honestly, we want to work with them,” Brodhead said of the counties – the commission’s routes run through their back yards, and they could always join later.
The June report found transit service through the commission would cost St. Albert about $11 million a year, or about $60,000 a year less than what it would spend if it goes it alone on transit. Brodhead said this cash would come from the money St. Albert currently spends on its own transit system.
The report found the commission would give Morinville residents bus service to St. Albert and the Edmonton region for about $183,000 a year. Turner said the long-term impacts of the pandemic would be a big factor in determining whether or not the town could afford that service. (Town council is set to consider a transit pilot project with St. Albert later this month.)
Brodhead said he hopes the province would help front the roughly $3 million needed to start the commission.
“The last thing I want to do is make a cash call to the nine municipalities,” he said.
Brodhead said he expects the province to make a decision on the commission in about a year. If the commission isapproved, he hopes to see its buses on the road by October 2022.
