By Plain Rhetoric

Subsidizing An Inter-Community Bus System

Jul 17, 2018 | 5:46 AM

KAMLOOPS — Did anyone else notice the sounds of silence and inaction from Ottawa and Edmonton when Greyhound announced they were abandoning passenger and freight service in the West? Given the loud voices, bullying and threats when the subject was moving oil instead of people, it would seem oil trumps the needs of people when it comes to transportation.  

In the name of moving bitumen across two provinces, the very same politicians who threatened BC, tried a trade embargo on BC wine, passed legislation limiting the flow of oil to BC, ignored first nations, wanted to cancel transfer payments, spent $4.5 billion tax dollars and claimed the national interests of Canada were at stake have been silent when it comes to moving people.  Should there not be a greater sense of urgency and need when it comes to the growing isolation of rural Canada?

Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier Rachel Notley and Premier Scott Moe believe that transporting bitumen is far more important than transporting people.  Even in Kamloops, local politicians seem more concerned about receiving their community benefits payoff and the short-term benefits of pipeline construction than they do about the long-term impact of Greyhound’s decision.

Rural BC has been abandoned by Greyhound and by all levels of government and politicians don’t seem to care. After all, they are the same politicians with a record of removing needed government services from smaller communities, including necessities of life such as healthcare.

Access to specialized and vital medical services are often only available in larger urban centres. It was called centralization, yet beginning this fall, if you don’t drive and you live outside a regional catchment city, you’ll have no way to attend appointments or obtain the necessary specialized procedures.

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They are governments that has put the interests of the oil sector and community benefit payouts over the interests, safety and needs of Canadians.  And unlike transporting oil, subsidizing a bus service is not on their ‘must do’ list.

The federal government though, along with Alberta and Saskatchewan see subsidies to the oil sector as perfectly acceptable. In fact, according to a recent study, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/07/03/canada-oil-gas-subsidies-g7_a_23473843/ Canada, spent $3.3 billion a year on fossil fuel subsidies.  This represents the largest oil and gas subsidy – as a share of the economy – of any G7 nation.

By comparison, in 2017 Via Rail received $350 million, down $50 million from 2014 and the money was spent primarily on the Golden Triangle of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal.

So what does that say about government’s opinion of rural Canada?  Apparently, while they care about and will heavily subsidize the transportation of bitumen, they don’t care about Canadians being unable to make it to a doctor’s appointment, attend university, access needed government services or even connect with friends and family.  Subsidize transporting bitumen? Yes. Subsidize transporting people? No.

When transporting fossil fuels is more important than the people and the rural communities they live in, than something has gone horribly wrong with the value system of our governments.  

As far back as 1871, Sir John A MacDonald, recognizing the importance of transportation as a nation builder, promised BC he’d build a national railway that would unite the people of BC with the rest of Canada. The need has not gone away and the millions of Canadians who require the most basic and affordable form of transportation available cannot be ignored. These are the people who grow what you eat and harvest the natural resources you need to survive. They play a vital role in your life and Canadians who treat them badly, do so at their own peril.

In a country as large as Canada, affordable transportation is needed to keep our country together.  It is worth subsidizing because without it, the very fabric, history and geography that has bound us together as a nation will in the end, tear us apart.