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Regional Transit

Daveography said:
Regional cooperation has always seemed to be a series of on-again, off-again relationships. For most of the time I lived in St. Albert, it's Council would never admit any dependency on Edmonton or the region. While that relationship has at least seemingly turned around in the last 5 or so years, now other players seem to want to assert a misguided sense of independence.
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Fortunately, most on council. including Mayor Katchur, support regional cooperation. We just have a couple who stick out and give them a bad name.
 
Foolworm said:
Just as an update, Fort Saskatchewan voted 5-2 to stay in, as expected.

I won't comment on regional dynamics except to say the obvious, i.e. that COVID has upset everything and it's anyone's guess as to how the chips may fall.
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I've been waiting for a news story to share, but none have been posted yet. If that changes, I'll add them to this comment.

The debate in council was a mess. Yes, 5 of the councilors were in favour of it, and I'm happy for that. But I was very dissapointed with Lennox and Kelly.

Lennox seemed to deliberately misunderstand or exaggerate what administration was telling her about the Commission. For example, in two years, the board will discuss their performance and whether changes should be made to the governance structure. They do not need to change anything, and it's just to make sure that they're operating efficiently and effectively. However, she twisted it by asking admin "So, you're saying that in two years, we might not have locally elected representatives on the board?" To-which, admin was forced to say yes because technically, that's correct, although not likely at all.

Meanwhile, Kelly derailed the debate at the beginning by arguing about procedure. He emailed admin a notice of motion about transit earlier that day, and it was everyone's understanding that they'd have until the next meeting, in January, to think on it. However, he insisted that even though he titled it a Notice of Motion, he did not use NOM-specific language like "At this date I will move that...", so it should be counted as a motion and voted on at that meeting instead. So, it took a good half hour or so and plenty of point of orders to sort this out (he lost, by the way).

Then, he argued that the per-rider cost of our transit routes, due to low ridership, are more expensive than the cost to drive to Clareview and pay for parking. So, transit has no economic benefits whatsoever. Then, both of them argued that instead of paying for transit, the city should just let Uber move people around since "People could make a few dollars for their families and it'd bring the community together." Their reasoning was that when Skip the Dishes came to town, lots of people signed up as drivers, so surely they'd want to drive people too.

Fortunately, once this is approved by the province, a community will need a 2/3rds majority of members to support their request to leave. So hopefully future councils can't arbitrarily choose to pull the Fort out.

I missed a whole lot with this summary, and I groaned plenty of times while listening in. If you want to hear it yourself, here's the council meeting timestamped to the start of the motion.
 
CplKlinger said:
Fortunately, once this is approved by the province, a community will need a 2/3rds majority of members to support their request to leave. So hopefully future councils can't arbitrarily choose to pull the Fort out.
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Not a given considering this dictatorship we have for a government didn't think too highly of the cities charter. I wouldn't be surprised if the UCP finds some stupid reason for pulling the plug on this
 
Grandinite said:
Not a given considering this dictatorship we have for a government didn't think too highly of the cities charter. I wouldn't be surprised if the UCP finds some stupid reason for pulling the plug on this
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That's a good point, and I definitely am worried about that. On the other hand, they also made forming regional commissions a bit easier by changing the rules so that they only need Ministerial approval, rather than cabinet approval. I won't take it for granted, but hopefully the UCP doesn't feel spiteful when the time comes for the Minister to decide.
 
I really wish we could start doing more trial services these days like in the past... i.e. when Calgary Transit tried Regiosprinters to Shawnessy from Anderson Station... Those could be one potential solution in a more cohesive regional transit system... Especially since we have almost every major transit centre/town on a former rail hub site... St Albert, Fort Sask, Leduc, Spruce Grove-Stony Plain not to mention Acheson and Nisku all being potential regional rail station hubs... To me a bus link although cheap to implement will never a be a proper long-term solution to creating a cohesive transit and pedestrian friendly city region... If you want to really get people out of cars you need to offer them something better... something faster, smoother, cheaper... The bus is none of those things... Even with signal priority and jump lanes. Is just will never be. The bus is great at local last-mile solutions and well that's about it... Otherwise there will always be better options...
 
Update on the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services Commission: I spoke with someone at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. She told me that they prepared a package for the Minister, and it's now with his office. By approving this package, he would be giving the ministerial approval needed for the Commission to form. If he rejects it, the Commission obviously won't go ahead (at least at the moment). She could not provide an ETA for this decision, and there's still a lot of hands for it to pass through before reaching the Minister himself, but at least we now know what stage it is currently at.
 
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CplKlinger said:
Update on the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services Commission: I spoke with someone at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. She told me that they prepared a package for the Minister, and it's now with his office. By approving this package, he would be giving the ministerial approval needed for the Commission to form. If he rejects it, the Commission obviously won't go ahead (at least at the moment). She could not provide an ETA for this decision, and there's still a lot of hands for it to pass through before reaching the Minister himself, but at least we now know what stage it is currently at.
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Wow, you acted quickly! That was just his day 2 on the job as Minister of Municipal Affairs.
 
Regional Transit Services Commission announcement​

January 27, 2021


The Regional Transit Services Commission (RTSC) Interim Board, along with the Honourable Ric McIver, Interim Minister of Municipal Affairs, invites members of the media to take part in a virtual news conference on Thursday, January 28.

Since 2018, the RTSC Interim Board, made up of elected officials from the City of Edmonton, City of St. Albert, City of Beaumont, City of Fort Saskatchewan, City of Leduc, City of Spruce Grove, Town of Stony Plain and Town of Devon, have worked closely with their Councils and Administrations, as well as the Government of Alberta, to form a regional transit services commission.

An application to establish a legal entity was submitted by the eight participating municipalities in 2020, consistent with the Province’s Red Tape Reduction Act, with a long-term vision that will roll out regional services by late 2022. The Business Case for the Commission, prepared in June 2020, showcased that through a commission model, the region stands to save a projected $2.2 million per year on transit services, while providing enhanced mobility options to residents and visitors of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region.
For more information about the RTSC, visit Regional Transit Services Commission - St. Albert or Regional Transit Services Commission - Edmonton.

Date: Thursday, January 28
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Location: Online via Zoom

Please pre-register for this event via the Zoom link:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BXDM3nR5ToCHEyF32JPHPw

Members of the media will have the opportunity to ask questions of the eight elected officials who represent the RTSC program. Please note that the news conference will be recorded and made available to the media shortly following the event.​
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Media contact:
Rowan Anderson
Communications Advisor
City of Edmonton
780-690-1605

Debra Clark
Advisor, Corporate Communications and Design
City of St. Albert
780-399-4035​
 
IanO said:
Regional Transit Services Commission announcement​

January 27, 2021


The Regional Transit Services Commission (RTSC) Interim Board, along with the Honourable Ric McIver, Interim Minister of Municipal Affairs, invites members of the media to take part in a virtual news conference on Thursday, January 28.

Since 2018, the RTSC Interim Board, made up of elected officials from the City of Edmonton, City of St. Albert, City of Beaumont, City of Fort Saskatchewan, City of Leduc, City of Spruce Grove, Town of Stony Plain and Town of Devon, have worked closely with their Councils and Administrations, as well as the Government of Alberta, to form a regional transit services commission.

An application to establish a legal entity was submitted by the eight participating municipalities in 2020, consistent with the Province’s Red Tape Reduction Act, with a long-term vision that will roll out regional services by late 2022. The Business Case for the Commission, prepared in June 2020, showcased that through a commission model, the region stands to save a projected $2.2 million per year on transit services, while providing enhanced mobility options to residents and visitors of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region.
For more information about the RTSC, visit Regional Transit Services Commission - St. Albert or Regional Transit Services Commission - Edmonton.

Date: Thursday, January 28
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Location: Online via Zoom

Please pre-register for this event via the Zoom link:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BXDM3nR5ToCHEyF32JPHPw

Members of the media will have the opportunity to ask questions of the eight elected officials who represent the RTSC program. Please note that the news conference will be recorded and made available to the media shortly following the event.​
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YEESSS This has to be it, finally. I don't see why they'd organize a press conference, especially one that references the provincial government's red tape crap in the announcement, if they were just going to reject it. I'm so excited for this to finally move forward! This will be great for regional connectivity and integration. It won't start operations the day after tomorrow obviously, but at least after tomorrow the folks at the commission can get to work on getting things in order.
 
Here's a sneak peak at the article I started working on this evening, because I'm too lame to go to sleep at a reasonable time. If the commission isn't approved tomorrow like I'm hoping, I'll be pretty darn salty.
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JuliallThat said:
The real thing that's killing me is wondering what livery they'll use for the transit Vehicles. 🤔
I'm thinking Light blue, Lavender and Mint. Get a real northern skies look goin.
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Yesss, that and the name they'll use for branding. How does "Heartland Transit" sound? Maybe it's worse than GoTransit or Translink, I just like it because a lot of our regional branding references the industrial Heartland.
 
"In the coming weeks, the Board will prepare for its first official Board meeting and continue to move at a brisk pace to stand up the Commission while the recruitment of the founding CEO progresses. As the work to stand up the Commission proceeds, member municipalities continue to target the roll-out of regional services for mid to late 2022, thereby bringing regional mobility one step closer to reality."

You can learn more about its phased launch (including what it will be doing in the next few years as it ramps up) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_Metropolitan_Transit_Services_Commission
 
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What do you think of the Transit Union's concerns? I sort of rolled my eyes when the president of our local chapter mentioned the increased bureaucracy, but I think that a lack of consultation is certainly a fair complaint.
edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Regional transit commission approved by the Alberta government

The province has approved the formation of an official commission to work towards building a regional transit system in the capital region.
edmonton.ctvnews.ca
 
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