Niagara Region Spins its Wheels on Transit
Lack of Public Transit in Niagara is Leading to Loss of Talent
Mar 10, 2009
About the Niagara Region
The Niagara Region is 1,896 square kilometers (or 715 square miles) and has a population of approximately half a million people (including students). The Region is made up of twelve individual municipalities, ranging in size from the City of St. Catharines (with 132,000 people) to Wainfleet (approx. 6,600 people). Demographically, the region has the second oldest population among its people, next to Victoria, BC. Much of its youth population are students that attend post-secondary education.
Niagara Region is served by two post-secondary institutions, Niagara College and Brock University, both of which have recently expanded and provide a broad range of academic and practical programs to its students. In recent months, Brock University has announced a partnership with the City of St. Catharines to relocate its school of fine arts to the downtown core and to support a Centre for Performing Arts, also downtown. Brock is attempting to engineer research opportunities, particularly in the area of health sciences. Niagara College is attempting to work on cultivating an emerging multi-media industry, as well as its large range of hospitality and culinary programs.
Young People and Non-Drivers are Disadvantaged in Niagara
However, Niagara Region cannot keep its young people. Many older people are also finding it hard to live in the Region as well, as its manufacturing base continues to cut jobs with fewer jobs available that would even nearly replace the worker's previous salary. A significant portion of its population remains on Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program and for longer periods of time than the provincial average. Despite the presence of two excellent post-secondary educational facilities (as well as several private colleges), Niagara Region still remains among those with the lowest number of permanent residents with a completed post-secondary education.
At a meeting of St. Catharines City Council in September 2008, substantial discussions about the problems of Niagara emerged. Stan Drobnich, Executive Director, of the Employment Help Centre, the region’s main generic “help” program for unemployed workers, cited that among 1,000 persons using his agency that year, only 70 (or seven percent) of them had both a driver’s license and a vehicle. Many people turn down jobs because they have no way to get to the job. Phil Madden, a manager with SITEL, a a major city employer, stated his business has difficulty attracting people to work for them, as there is poor transit. Walter Sendzik, of the Chamber of Commerce, also reported many businesses have difficulty finding and keeping employees due to a lack of regional transportation.
Need for Inter-City Transit is Well Documented
Most newspapers in Niagara have editorially backed the need for a regional transit service. After all, Niagara Region is the only incorporated regional municipality in Ontario that does not have a regional transit service. Almost all jobs, regardless of industry, that pay much more than minimum, seek only candidates with a driver’s license and vehicle. Regardless of qualifications or education, the only jobs available in Niagara to non-drivers are unskilled, low-wage labour. While employers are ostensibly required to structure their jobs to accommodate people with disabilities, including those that cannot drive due to medical conditions or treatments, the tendency is to avoid this, possibly because of poor transportation alternatives in the area.
In 2006, Niagara Region launched its Niagara Specialized Transit, its only inter-municipal transit service, which offers transportation only to persons with disabilities traveling from one municipality to another to attend medical appointments. Trip purposes have since expanded to include employment and educational trips, although eligibility for this service continues to exclude most persons with disabilities, as well as older persons who had to reduce or give up on driving. The criteria is fairly restrictive, citing that a person is eligible only if they are unable to walk a 175 meters or board a “conventional” transit vehicle. This would imply primarily mobility impaired, as opposed to the myriad of other reasons why many non-mobility impaired disabled persons do not drive, including sleep disorder, epilepsy, heart disease, blind or visual impairment, cognitive disorder, severe anxiety disorder, certain neurological dysfunction, or even just the results of treatment for many conditions, such as cancer, psychiatric disorders, chronic pain, etc.- none of whom are eligible for this service.
At the present moment, if any of these other people, as well as other non-drivers in Niagara, wish to travel from one municipality to another, the only option is to drive a car or take a taxi, in most cases, the cost for which is prohibitive. Depending on distance, taxis can set one back between $60 - $100 for ONE round trip. While politicians know this is a problem, neither the municipal or regional levels of government want to take responsibility. At the municipal level, budgets are limited, plus only four municipalities in Niagara have transit service at all. It would be a stretch to ask these municipalities to spread their services to other communities at the same budgetary allotment they currently receive with no further capital or operational funding.
Niagara Region Embarks on Another Study
After over thirty years of community groups and the Region itself conducting study after study, the Region is once again embarking on a $75,000 study to be followed by a plan of sorts. Critics of the Region's handling of this file are hesitant to believe anything will come of this. With the cost of vehicle ownership exceeding $8,000 a year, it is not likely young persons graduating from post-secondary programs in the Region will be able to take on this cost, in addition to repaying hefty student loans. This is in part why most young persons flee Niagara to "greener" pastures.
In the meantime, the Region is still working on a plan, but how it intends to get there from here is going to be another story.
