A rally to save the STC was held in North Battleford in May, 2017. A University of Saskatchewan graduate student is currently working on a research project on the impact of the closure of the STC service two years ago. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Community needs

U of S study researching impact of STC closure

Jul 25, 2019 | 5:12 PM

A University of Saskatchewan graduate student is taking part in a research project about the impact on people from the closure of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) two years ago.

The provincial government decided to discontinue the STC in 2017 due to low ridership numbers affecting costs. The province said at that time it was anticipated it would need to provide more than $85 million in subsidies for five more years to keep the service operating.

Jacob Alhassan, a PhD candidate, plans to travel throughout Saskatchewan to interview residents participating in the study about how the end of the service influenced their lives.

The study is called Public Transportation and Health: the contexts and impacts of the closure of the STC.

“We’re essentially trying to understand whether the closure of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company is impacting people within the province,” Alhassan said.

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So far close to 100 people have requested to take part in the study to give their feedback.

“I think a lot of people are very concerned about the closure, and many people have very diverse stories and ways in which the closure is affecting their lives and their quality of life,” Alhassan said. “There has been a strong response from all over the province.”

“Some people are so far unable to get to medical appointments; some people are talking a lot about isolation [being cut off from family without the service]. But we are just beginning the study,” he said. “So we need to collect all the different stories together. Then, we can analyze it and have a more comprehensive picture of how the closure is affecting people.”

He also expects to speak with First Nations people as well as government and health officials, as part of the research team’s work.

Alhassan said when the project is completed, it will be an opportunity to provide evidence that government decision-makers in the province can use when creating policy that affects public transportation.

North Battleford senior Carol Crockett told battlefordsNOW she used to ride the STC bus service when it was available to visit family and attend medical appointments in Saskatoon, and knows others who also relied on the service, including those on a fixed income.

She participated in a rally in North Battleford in 2017 in an effort to try to save the STC before it was discontinued.

North Battleford lawyer Benedict Feist, who was an advocate for saving the STC, said it served an important need.

“I think there has definitely has been an impact on people in Saskatchewan,” he said.

He cited the case of Glen Sinclair walking from his home in Meadow Lake to North Battleford to raise funds for his travel expenses for cancer treatments in Saskatoon because affordable public transportation wasn’t available.

Greyhound discontinued its bus service in Western Canada in 2018, adding to the problem. Private carriers have started providing service to the area in 2019, but Feist said that still doesn’t “fill the gap” left by the closure of the STC.

Feist said he is aware of local residents also having issues accessing affordable transportation in the province.

“Medical appointments for elderly people being able to visit family in the summer, elderly people that no longer drive, that don’t have the ability to get on a bus to see family members – there is that impact too,” he said. “That disconnection of elderly people from family in other communities has an impact on health. There is a lot of discussion on loneliness in old age and how that can impact people’s health and their life expectancy.”

He is also concerned that without the STC there is more of a risk of individuals needing to hitchhike, being in a vulnerable situation.

Feist raised the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the community and Saskatchewan as a continued concern. He indicated vulnerable individuals need to be able to access a reliable, safe means of travel that is easy to reach, but with the elimination of the STC, as a centralized public transportation service, they no longer have that.

“What I would like to see is the STC come back in some form or another, personally,” Feist said. “I think this province is one where we have a dispersed population, and a lot of poverty in the north of the province, and North Central [including the Battlefords].

“There is a lot of difficulty for people getting transportation around in this part of the province.”

Feist said he drives most weeks from North Battleford to Prince Albert for court, and “every time I drive I see at least one person on the highway hitchhiking, somewhere around in the north, so there is a need for transport here.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing if the government subsidizes that to an extent, when we think about the benefits we see in other areas that are going to be looked at in this study,” he said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW