Getting There from Here The Northwestern Ontario Challenge

Rural and Northern Transportation Wendy Landry Chair Common Voice Northwest President Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association Mayor Municipality of Shuniah I want to start by telling you a bit about Common Voice Northwest. We were born out of the forestry crisis a number of years ago when we realized that the Northwest would be hit hard and we would need a regional tool that would help us rebuild our economy. Under the leadership of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce Common Voice Northwest was born.

Public Policy Research Municipal via NOMA Business via Chambers of Commerce Labour Post Secondary Institutions NOEL Multicultural & Immigration Work Force Planning Our Board represents the leadership of Northwestern Ontario. Municipalities in each of the three districts and the City of Thunder Bay are represented. Small and Large business and public and industrial unions are at the table. So too is Lakehead University, Confederation College and the school boards represented by the Northern Ontario Education Leaders. We also have a seat at the Board table for the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association and the Workforce Planning Boards of the region.

Task Forces Regional Enhancement Energy Tourism Transportation Energy East Pipeline Northern Policy Institute Planning Economic Participation Education & Training Youth Infrastructure We operate though a series of Task Forces with the memberships of each reflecting a broad cross section of knowledge, experience and geography. Our papers or reports are first presented to the Common Voice Northwest Board and then on to our partners – NOMA and NOACC who take them forward to Government. These two bodies are the primary advocates for the economic issues of the Northwest, with regular access to Cabinet members.

Situation Analysis AIR to Thunder Bay Fort Frances Kenora Dryden Red Lake Sioux Lookout Let me turn to today’s presentation: Getting there from here. Northwestern Ontario is the size of France but without either the population or the transportation infrastructure, but it comes with distance and costs. Only 5 of our 36 municipalities have scheduled air service to the regional hub of Thunder Bay which is also the connecting point to the rest of Ontario and the world.

Situation Analysis TORONTO TO ORLANDO: $527 AIR to Thunder Bay & Return Fort Frances $1,024 Kenora $ 995 Dryden $ 896 Red Lake $ 852 Sioux Lookout $ 622 Toronto $ 475 Scheduled air service in the Northwest is very expensive – where it exists. A round trip ticket to Thunder Bay , the regional hub and medical centre, ranges from a high of $1,024 to a more modest $622. This does not include the exorbitant cost to fly out of the remote First Nations communities in the region. For reference, most of you can fly from Toronto to Orlando for less than what it costs our residents to get to our regional hub. In fact it is cheaper for folks from Thunder Bay to fly to Toronto than to its neighbours in the Northwest. TORONTO TO ORLANDO: $527

Situation Analysis NO AIR SERVICE - NO RAIL SERVICE TO THUNDER BAY Nipigon Geraldton Schreiber Nakina Terrace Bay Longlac Marathon Beardmore Manitouwadge Jellico Then there are the communities to the east of Thunder Bay. They do not have any scheduled air service – not since the Ontario Government cancelled its own scheduled air service – Noront Air, promising the private sector would fill in the gaps. That didn’t work out too well! By the way, the Federal Government removed the rail service to most of these communities with the exception of Longlac (and Sioux Lookout to the west) but those services run through the middle of the night and do not connect to our major medical centre.

Situation Analysis HIGHWAY BUS SERVICE Three carriers Greyhound – national Highway 17 corridor One service each direction each day Westerly overnight to Thunder Bay and daytime to Winnipeg Easterly overnight to Thunder Bay and daytime towards Sudbury Like most other places in Canada Greyhound Bus Lines continues to cut services. In the Northwest it just provides bridge service – to get people from Southern Ontario to Western Canada and back. It is not designed to provide inter-regional services that our residents need.

Situation Analysis HIGHWAY BUS SERVICE Three carriers Caribou – regional Thunder Bay to Atikokan & Fort Frances Once per week Kasper – regional Thunder Bay to Nipigon, Geraldton and LongLac Thunder Bay to Dryden and Sioux Lookout Daily We have two regional carriers – both struggling with challenges in an effort to provide transportation services Caribou Coach used to have a high frequency schedule serving both Fort Frances and Greenstone but are now down to once a week to Fort Frances. Kasper Mini-bus is doing a bit better with daily service to Greenstone and Sioux Lookout. Too many of our communities have no bus service at all.

Situation Analysis Health Welfare Shopping Work Recreation REASONS PEOPLE TRAVEL Health Welfare Shopping Work Recreation Organized Sports Family The people of the northwest have the same reasons to travel as the rest of us. Some have to for medical, business or even work or shopping for necessities. Other for their own enjoyment or that of their families.

58,400 TRIPS PER YEAR HEALTH TRAVEL GRANT RECIPIENTS Northerners are compensated for the high cost of accessing healthcare through the Northern Health Travel Grant. We now know how may people leave their community each year to access healthcare that they need but is not available in their small Northern town. Nearly 60,000 a year and as you can see from the slide from a number of major centres in the northwest. 58,400 TRIPS PER YEAR

HEALTH TRAVEL GRANT RECIPIENTS To Winnipeg: 15,840 Of those 60,000 trips, nearly 16,000 were to the medical services in Winnipeg and over 33,000 to Thunder Bay which is the primary care medical center for the Northwest. The vast majority went by private vehicle as no bus service was available to meet their needs. To Winnipeg: 15,840 To Thunder Bay: 33,421

Non-Emergent Transports Ambulances as taxi service Not an emergency Ties up valuable medical resources 60 to 70% of Code 1 & 2’s could go by bus In the North we are challenged by an EMS system that is doing work it is not designed for. It has become a last resort for Doctors who want to get their patients to a major medical centre but those patients do no have the ability to transport themselves. Ambulances on a Code 1 call, which are trips that can be deferred or Code 2 calls which are trips that can be scheduled are not in their home community when a real emergency happens. This leaves many communities vulnerable to a crisis.

Welfare Applicants for Ontario Works (OW) must present themselves in person in order to complete the application process Many communities do not have an OW office in the Northwest For those communities without regular bus service it is difficult for applicants to get to the nearest office. Although Ontario Works applicants can apply by phone, they are required by provincial law to present themselves at a DSSAB office before the first cheque is cut. Without a proper inter-community bus service, persons seeking welfare do not have the finances to pay for a very expensive taxi ride to the nearest office, even though they will eventually be reimbursed the cost.

Shopping Work Recreation Organized Sports Family All of the above require personal vehicles to go from community to community. Those without vehicles are captive to family, friends or very expensive taxis to be part of the broader community. For many people inter-community bus service is an essential service. It should also be noted that the lack of appropriately scheduled bus service is a key element in why many seniors are leaving small communities and moving to the larger centers – depriving those small communities of their grandparents and a large volunteer component.

Existing support to other regions The Northwest is only asking for what most other areas of the province have had for years – a publicly funded inter-community passenger service. Existing support to other regions

Metrolinx/GO Transit In 2013/14 MetroLinx received $161.4 million from Ontario – resulting in a 27% subsidy of their inter-community bus and rail system. The GO system received $106.4 million towards their operation.

Ontario Northland Ontario Northland, which serves Northeastern Ontario received a subsidy of $11 million in 2014, down from the previous level of $29,750,000. Its inter-community bus service is subsidized to the tune of $880,000

The Northwest solution The Common Voice Northwest Transportation Task Force was created to monitor and comment on the Ministry of Transportation’s Northern Ontario Multimodal Transportation Strategy. As part of that effort the Transportation Task Force created an Inter-Community Bus Working Group. The working group gathered information about the current situation in the region, examined what other jurisdictions had done to serve remote areas like the Northwest and prepared a report. The Northwest solution

Treat us the same as the rest of the Province Northwest’s Proposal Treat us the same as the rest of the Province Provide an annual subsidy of approximately $3.5 million Provide one time capital assistance to equip the bus fleet In January of 2016 the report was released and shared with MTO, our local cabinet members Gravelle and Mauro and with the Premier. We made the case that the Northwest should be treated the same as other parts of the province, That an annual subsidy program of approximately $3.4 million should be created And that a one time capital grant should be provided to equip the bus fleet.

Northwest’s Proposal Flow the funds to the existing carriers Twice daily schedule to each highway community in the Northwest Early morning departures with mid day arrivals in Thunder Bay Supper time return departures from Thunder Bay We went on to propose that rather than creating a new bus company, that the subsidy should be earmarked for the existing carriers to service all highway communities. We also recommended that the system be designed so that passengers could leave their home communities early in the day, be in Thunder Bay for their medical appointments by noon then return home in the evening.

The province’s preliminary solution This July, MTO released its draft report Northern Ontario Multi-Modal Transportation Strategy Draft Principles For comment The province’s preliminary solution

Northern Ontario Multi-Modal Transportation Strategy Draft Principles “Establish a network of core intercommunity passenger bus services across northern Ontario, connecting major centres” “This would provide service between larger centres and/or along major provincial highways, and, where feasible, same-day return travel options to and from regional centres” As you can see from the slide, the Ministry has only met us half way: They use terms like “connecting major centres” and “major provincial highways” clearly ignoring highway communities that are off the beaten track – like Rainy River, Red Lake, Balmertown, Nakina, Armstrong, Manitouwadge etc. We clearly need to have our political advocates – NOMA, NOACC and we hope AMO stress the point that all highway communities in the Northwest need daily bus service.

“In the Old Days” De-regulation killed inter-community bus service to many rural communities In the old days, under a regulated passenger transportation system, bus line operators like Greyhound were required to serve the low traffic communities as a condition of their provincial and federal licence. They were required to cross-subsidize these low volume routes with the profits from the high volume , high profit, routes. When the bus industry was de-regulated, this cross subsidization was no longer mandatory and over time, smaller communities saw their bus service disappear while others saw the level of service decline. Our proposal for a government subsidy is the logical replacement for what has happened.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to be part of this panel. As a final comment let me remind you of the words of Kenora’s Mayor Dave Canfield when he tells Ontario Cabinet Ministers that his town is closer to 3 provincial capitals than it is to Queens Park And that is why we have to keep pushing to be heard. Chi Miigwetch