Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We take it as a great loss in our community to not have the Greyhound bus pull into town everyday about 4:30. I note that this is as a result of deregulation that took place, that no longer requires Greyhound to operate in less lucrative markets, and as Greyhound themselves said, maybe some smaller carriers would move into these markets. I’m sure that the entrepreneurial and innovative-thinking people of Hay River will perhaps see this as an opportunity and move into this, but it will take time. There is also a loss of not having the affiliation of Greyhound to take advantage of those passes. There is a Discovery Pass that you can buy that will allow you to go anywhere in Canada within a certain amount of days for about $199, which is great because Hay River was the end of the Greyhound. One little thing that we had that Yellowknife didn’t have. You could go to Hay River, you could cross over the NWT border and come into Hay River on a Greyhound bus pass.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation what role did this government play in the discussions about the removal of the discontinuance of the Greyhound service into the Northwest Territories. The passenger service will now end in Edmonton. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT is one of four jurisdictions that do not regulate passenger or bus industry. We certainly control and insist on safety and insurance requirements to provide service. However, in the last while since we were made aware of the bus service that came into Hay River, as the Member referred to, we are not going to provide passenger service anymore. We’ve taken the occasion to try to get as much information as we can to see what that meant in terms of are they also going to discontinue hauling freight. Are there other people out there that would step up to the plate to take over the service?
We had deputy ministers get together from all the jurisdictions, as this does not only impact the Northwest Territories, there are other jurisdictions, to see if there was any interest, to see if we could get any support from the federal government for a national program to try and subsidize the operations. That was not successful. So we are right now talking to some of the operators in the NWT to see if there is an interest. If we find there is an interest, we just need to know if it’s going to include the hauling of freight. That’s an area that we need some clarity on.
The comments reported in the news media attributed to Greyhound indicated that they will continue to be involved in hauling freight but they are dropping the passenger service. I think by doing that, what they are doing is keeping what they think makes money and dropping the part that they think does not make money, which makes it difficult for someone else in the private sector to go into that and still go head to head and compete with Greyhound on the freight side of things. So I would like to know what this government will plan to do. I think it’s going to be difficult for the private sector to compete, but like I said, I have great confidence in the business sector in Hay River to consider and perhaps step into this gap.
I’d like to ask what role this government could play in assisting, cooperating... Sometimes it takes a while to get these things off the ground before they become financially viable. Does this government have an interest in assisting? There is already courier and freight service. Greyhound is only one of those services that comes into Hay River right now, or will as of October, but I’m mostly concerned about the passenger service. Is this something that through Tourism or Transportation this government sees itself having a role in?
The reason the bus service is not going to haul passengers anymore is because the Alberta government deregulated their system. It is now allowing what was a monopoly up until now, to cancel some of the trips that are coming to the rural areas that have very low market volumes.
We have certainly an interest to communicate what the plans are from Greyhound. Our information coming from the local operators is they don’t have a very good understanding as to what the Greyhound plans to do, whether they would step aside if an operator came forward from the Northwest Territories and operated up to Valleyview where the Greyhound services are going to be ending for passengers.
I think our role right now is to try to bridge that communication gap, to talk to Greyhound, to talk to the local operators and make sure we have a good understanding. We’ve already had some requests from operators to see if there was any way that we could subsidize. We’re not at that point yet but we have to consider all options. We are very interested in having a service resume. We think it’s also a good opportunity for our operators in the Northwest Territories to expand their routes and have passenger service continue.
As the Member has mentioned, it is a good service. It is targeted to people that are of low income. A lot of them are seniors, students, and others that are wanting to see the people…That’s it.
As my colleague Mr. Bromley pointed out to me, too, it’s also a mode of transportation that is more environmentally friendly than flying, and a lot of people are considering that these days. It’s a way of a group of people getting together and travelling together and reducing the environmental footprint from that kind of travel. I’d like to ask the Minister, does he know anything about the negotiations that were taking place between Greyhound and B.C.? Whitehorse? It seems Greyhound wanted to cut out the northern B.C. and into the Yukon into Whitehorse, as well, but somehow they managed to avert closure of that route. How did that happen? Did he talk to his colleagues from the other jurisdictions?
Yes, I’ve talked to all my colleagues at the national level. It’s a concern right across the board. The decision by Greyhound to continue their service into B.C. all the way to Whitehorse is a business decision. They have the market volumes there to warrant carrying of passengers. We had the jurisdiction of Manitoba look at doing one year of subsidies. They have since discontinued that and I’m not sure where they’re going to go as next steps. We have looked and talked with all our colleagues at different jurisdictions and are looking at all the options.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So just to summarize then, we have the commitment of this government to work together with other northern private businesspeople who may be able to come up with a solution for the passenger service into the North that will look at the potential revenue from freight, but also take into account the tourism aspect of this travel plus the costly travel mode available to Northerners as an option for getting in and out of the North as well. Is that what I’m to understand from the Minister’s comments?
Overall, we think it’s an excellent opportunity to the qualified businesses in the Northwest Territories to expand their service, to generate a revenue source. It may mean a different type of vehicle. It may mean a different schedule. It may mean convincing Greyhound to release some of their commitments to provide freight. All those discussions have to take place, and we certainly have to get a better understanding as to what is going to be coming in terms of what the Greyhound plans are. We don’t have that all in our hands right now.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
