St. Albert to debate abandoning regional transit service project over increased costs

A St. Albert councillor wants the city to reconsider joining the capital region's transit plan. 

In early December, Sheena Hughes proposed St. Albert start the process of dissolving the Edmonton Metropolitan Transit Services Commission (EMTSC), which consists of the communities that are supposed to be joined by a bus network come the spring: Beaumont, Devon, Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, St. Albert, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. 

St. Albert council will debate leaving the project in January. 

Hughes' motion follows a November decision by St. Albert council to increase property taxes by 1.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent in order to accommodate increased transit costs. 

Since the city first committed to the regional project in 2020, St. Albert's share of the costs to launch the service in April 2023 have gone up by $1.4 million and would go up to $1.8 million the following year, according to analysis done by administration. 

"We fast forward three years and the efficiencies that were promised have dried up and now we're looking at a cost to the city of $1.5 million this year, going to $2 million within the next couple of years," Hughes told CTV News Edmonton on Monday. 

"What we're getting in the regional transit commission is exactly the services we're getting now... We're not getting anything more from this. We're just paying more for it." 

The transit commission approved the new net $25-million operating budget for 2023 at a Nov. 17 board meeting. The operational costs for the 13-route system came in around $29 million, with expected revenues landing at $4 million. 

Between service costs, fees and debt servicing, and after collecting an estimated $1.7 million in revenue, St. Albert stands to owe a total of $9.2 million for the regional service throughout 2023. 

"If we want to get out, the time to get out is before this actually occurs. Every minute that we're in it longer, it means that we're going to be paying more to get out and becomes more and more difficult," Hughes said. 

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BENEFIT WORTH THE COST: COMMISSION CHAIR 

"Unfortunately what happened between 2019 and 2022 was a pandemic hit the world and changed how we live, learn, work and play. And, quite honestly, public transit took a hit as well," St. Albert councillor and EMTSC chair Wes Brodhead explained to CTV News Edmonton on Monday. 

He said the commission's overhead costs also went up as municipalities tweaked their local offerings. 

Unlike his colleague Hughes, Brodhead does not believe St. Albert should pull out of the coalition. 

"What we don't see are these cross-town routes connecting Fort Saskatchewan to Stony Plain, those sorts of interactions between and within municipalities that allow for a free flow of people within the region," he told CTV News Edmonton. 

"At the end of the day, the commission model is more effective and certainly more efficient. It may take us a while to get over the initial bumps of getting this thing up and running, but at the end of the day, the proof will be in the pudding that the overall system will serve the region much better." 

Hughes says the commission has not provided a real plan to recoup costs. 

The city of 68,000 is the second-largest member in the transit commission. According to a Leger survey commissioned by EMTSC, five per cent of future users will be from St. Albert. 

The system is meant to be operational by the end of April using assets and staffing from the member municipalities' existing transit services. 

Hughes is not the project's only recent opposition. The union that represents bus drivers in the Edmonton area has taken out ads in support of abandoning the regional plan, expressing concern over job security. 

Strathcona and Leduc counties are among the municipalities that opted out of the project early on. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach and Stephanie Prues