On Tuesday, Williams Lake Council is meeting and 1 item under consideration is renewal of the Interior Health Health Connections Bus Agreement (this is a bus that runs between Williams Lake to Kamloops, with stops in 100 Mile House, Clinton, and Cache Creek for medical appointments)
The current user fee is $5.00 each way. However, the CAO (Chief Administator - Brian Carruthers) has suggested in his report that because of a deficit of $1,600 and BC Transit will cover 50% of this deficit, that the City negotiate with Interior Health to cover the remaining $800 deficit including user fee hikes or service reductions or a combination of both.
You can read the report on this matter from the CAO here
But two things stand out:
1) The request was sent to WL City Hall on February 17th and the CAO's report is dated May 17th. My question is - why is a simple request to renew an agreement taking 3 whole months to get to Council?
2) Why didn't this request go to the Public Works Portfolio (no indication it was), the Central Cariboo Joint Committee or the Seniors' Advisory Committee? The Joint Committee may have been prepared to help the City cover the $800 deficit, given the Health Connections Bus serves residents' from Electoral Areas D, E, F, J and K. Also, if user fee hikes or service reductions are being contemplated to meet the agreement's budget for the Health Connections Bus then we should talk to the very people who are going to be impacted the most and use this bus service the most - seniors!! and let's hear what they have to say before the politicians decide to renew this agreement and impose greater costs on users or reduce services on the very people who use this service the most - seniors!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment