Thank you very much.
Good afternoon to the committee, and thanks again for the invitation to speak today.
I'm Stuart Kendrick, the senior vice-president of Greyhound Canada. I've proudly worked for this great company for 33 years. I started as a baggage handler in London, Ontario. Today I'm the person responsible for managing Greyhound's business in Canada.
Almost immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown began, our ridership declined by 95%. Despite our best efforts to reduce costs by gradually reducing service, and our significant outreach efforts to the government, we simply could not continue operations without financial support. We do not receive any government subsidies like some of our competitors, such as VIA Rail and some municipal and provincial transit operations that also provide intercity travel. We're completely reliant on the fare box revenue to survive.
Greyhound is also a member of a coalition of regional intercity bus companies from across Canada whose operations have been similarly impacted. These companies include Wilson's Transportation, which operates in the province of British Columbia; Maritime Bus, which operates in P.E.I., New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; Orléans Express, which operates in Quebec; and Coach Canada, which operates in Ontario and Quebec and into the United States, as does Greyhound Canada.
Before COVID-19, the coalition employed about 1,400 people, serviced hundreds of communities across the country and carried several million Canadians annually, but on May 12, after incurring weeks of significant losses and with no financial support from governments in sight, Greyhound suspended services in Canada. This shutdown has meant that approximately 400 Greyhound employees in Ontario and Quebec have lost their jobs, and our customers were left without service.
I want to spend the rest of my time with you today talking about our customers.
Thirty percent of our riders are students. We help them get to college or university and to visit their families for the holidays. Not everyone in this country has parents who can afford to fly them home for a long weekend or who have a car to drive hours to pick them up. They rely on us, the bus carriers.
Twenty-five percent of our riders are seniors. Often on fixed incomes, seniors ride our buses to get to medical appointments in the city when the care they need isn't available in the small town or rural community. They ride our buses to visit grandchildren. They don't want to drive, or are not interested in driving on a busy highway. They rely on the bus.
Sixty percent of our riders are women. Among them are single moms who need an affordable and safe way to travel with their kids. Our services are how they take their kids to the city to see friends and extended family, or for a special weekend, assuming they can afford some leisure travel. Our buses provide safe and comfortable transportation for women travelling to the next town for a job interview or to Women's College Hospital in Toronto for medical appointments. They rely on Greyhound.
Before the pandemic hit, 15% of our riders were unemployed and 40% of our riders were people with a household income below $25,000 annually. To be sure, these are not folks who are going to benefit from an airline bailout, as important as that may be. They're not Bay Street people. They're Main Street Canadians from small towns, rural communities and inner city neighbourhoods who are just trying to get to where they need to go. Whether it's for work, for family visits, or for some leisure travel when they can afford it again, they rely on the bus. These are the people hardest hit by this crisis: women, students and the working poor.
I'm here to tell you that as people start moving around again and as the economy opens up, these are people who are going to need affordable, reliable intercity busing to help them look for work, go to medical appointments, and finally, see their families again.
We have been asking the Government of Canada and the provinces for help. For the sum total of $26 million, the five members of our coalition could operate on a break-even basis by running at 50% of our pre-COVID capacity for six months.
In that regard, we noted Minister Duclos' recent statement to the CBC that there will be something for intercity busing “quickly”, he said.
We need your help so we can be there for Main Street Canadians. I urge this committee to give intercity busing a lifeline so that we can survive this difficult time and be there to provide transportation services to Canadians when the economy rebounds.
Thank you, committee, for giving me the opportunity to speak. I would be happy to take any questions.