With the recent rumblings from council about further crippling Moose Jaw's already lacklustre transit system, I feel it is time our councillors were given a basic tutorial about what their job actually is.
As such, I address this letter directly to them.
You are supposed to serve the people of Moose Jaw!
You are entrusted to spend our tax dollars to provide services that benefit us, the citizens of Moose Jaw.
You are not there to cut services. You are not there to punish people for being poor.
You are not there to run this city like a business. You are there to run this city like a municipal government.
If you were there to run this city like a business you would be failing miserably. If you were running this city like a business, and it were in any way profitable, your citizens would be benefiting from lower taxes, or even rebates.
Obviously, that is not the case. Luckily for you, with recent tax increases, it doesn't have to be. Luckily for you, there is no mechanism to recall particularly odious councils.
It seems that transit has once again found itself in your crosshairs for paltry cost saving measures. We have received millions of dollars in federal grants meant to keep services robust, to reduce on greenhouse emissions, and to stimulate our economy. How has this money been used?
It is utterly disgraceful to cut a service that so disproportionately punishes people who cannot afford cars, cannot drive for medical reasons, or prefer to take measures to save both money and the environment by utilizing transit. It is deplorable. It is disgusting!
You claim that the bus service is not utilized enough to justify its existence, but I posit that the reason it is underutilized, aside from the very obvious consideration of a global pandemic, which council seems to have conveniently forgotten, is because this and prior councils have done their utmost to gradually worsen the service to the point of it being practically useless to all but the most dedicated riders, or those with no other options.
To me, the solution would be to improve the service. To fully fund it. To stop thinking of our taxpayer funding as a subsidy, and to start recognizing it as the prepaid service it is, as vital as first responders, as vital as garbage pickup, as vital as recreation, and beautification, and realize that, with a little work, it could be integral to both business, tourism, and the health of our community.
If this service addressed the needs of the community, and was properly advertised and routed, more people would use it. It could improve the traffic congestion on our narrow streets, mitigate the obvious parking problems in the downtown core, and revitalize our tourism industry, when the pandemic passes. It could even help the landlords to rent to Sask Polytech students further afield if the students had a timely and accessible bus service near their accommodation.
We should market our transit system as an easy way to reduce our carbon footprints, as a way to avoid some of the federal carbon tax and save money, and as a way to avoid the downtown traffic and the bother and cost of finding parking. Bonus points for having less people who can't figure out the turning lanes on First Avenue painted on the road.
Alas, I doubt the will or the vision of this council to make such bold changes. It seems as though their mandate is one of putting a city that should be thriving further in decline, by making it harder for people to get where they need to go.
City council, we are putting you on notice that your arguments to dissolve Saturday service do not make any sense. We have noticed how much money you voted to give yourselves, how many services you are taking away from us, and how poorly you are using our money. The citizens of Moose Jaw are not dumb, nor are they complacent. We are looking to the future, where those of you who think they can cut without care will become a footnote in the history of this city, barely worth mention, except with brief disdain and an immediate dismissal.
City council, is not too late to change course. It is not too late to do the right thing for your citizens. It is not too late to show that you can make positive changes for a better bus service, and for a better future for all the citizens of Moose Jaw.
-- Chelsa Broom
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
