At the Governance and Priorities Committee Meeting this past week, master plans for the city were discussed. One of the items was transportation in the city, however Mayor Gerald Aalbers doesn’t think bus routes will make it to the agenda anytime soon.
“One of the things I’m seeing as a Mayor, from federal funding there is money for public transit. Is that the only reason to get into public transit? No, it isn’t and it certainly wouldn’t pay for the entire public transit system but a made in Lloydminster solution may be an opportunity but as you can see I don’t think it’s going to be on the agenda this year and may not even be on the agenda next year.”
He adds that there are examples of both public transit working and being expensive.
“There’s plenty of examples in communities smaller than ours where it does work, now I’m not going to name all of them but there is certainly some where it is an expensive habit as well to have public transit that is subsidized by the tax payer.”
Mayor Aalbers does say when council has an opportunity to discuss it, it will be discussed at length.
“So I can tell you we’ll approach that with a great deal of caution and ensure whatever we come up with as best as we can for the city.”