St. Albert is one step closer to forming a regional commuter transit service with the City of Edmonton, but it may cost as much as $1.6 million per year.
Council approved a motion to appoint two councillors to a Regional Commuter Service Task Force. Initially the task force would provide recommendations, but the ultimate goal is to create a standalone joint service.
Transit director Kevin Bamber explained appointing councillors to the task force wouldn’t cost any additional money and would be required to get a clearer picture of what the potential costs and benefits of the next steps would be.
“That’s where we have the first opportunity to come back to council to evaluate results,” he said.
Should council be unhappy with the results of the task force, expected within one year, it will have the opportunity to pull the plug on the project.
The formation of the task force represents the first of three proposed phases in moving toward a final result. At the end of the first phase, the task force is expected to propose a memorandum of understanding between St. Albert and Edmonton on how the service might operate, which would require approval from both councils.
During the second phase other municipalities in the region would be invited to come on board. The service’s mandate, funding, administration and integration would then be finalized. This process is expected to take one or two years, and will again require the approval of the councils involved.
About one year later, it’s expected the new service can begin operations.
Bamber said at this point, the cost estimates provided in an administrative report are just rough estimates and could change. The report cites some loose assumptions about how the new system may operate and provided an annual cost estimate of between $600,000 and $1.6 million. But Bamber emphasized this does not account for potential funding from the provincial government.
“The province has expressed interest in this whole idea as well, and have been at the table recently,” he said. “They see it as a good thing and indicated there would be some participation by the province in the future.”
Council was by and large supportive of taking the next step, as it wouldn’t cost anything extra, but several councillors cited concern about what this might cost and what potential benefit St. Albert could achieve.
“To be quite frank, this report is lacking in providing some of those details,” Coun. Cam MacKay said.
Coun. Tim Osborne said he didn’t think the case has been made to justify regional transit but he would like to see the process move forward.
“There’s still a lot of questions that need to be answered,” he said. “I think it’s important to understand what the funding model will look like moving ahead.”
Coun. Cathy Heron noted the two cities’ administrations have pushed this agenda forward for quite some time and she’s pleased to see that councillors will now have a seat at the table.
Coun. Sheena Hughes, who was the only councillor to vote against the motion, likened the city’s position to that of a frog in boiling water – meaning the city may gradually be on the hook for more and more costs it would have refused if they’d been presented all at once.
“My major concern is I feel like we’re boiling a frog here, and I’ve been in enough frog boils to know how it will happen,” she said.
In order for the task force to move forward, Edmonton’s council must also appoint members. The matter was scheduled for debate at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and the result was not available by press time.
