I'd like to thank the committee and the staff for allowing me to appear virtually from Treaty No. 1 territory. I do so as a settler whose primary expertise is in the field of history.
On the topic that concerns this particular committee, I want to share some of the central findings of the research I undertook with Dr. Karine Duhamel and Dr. Jocelyn Thorpe that examined the existing literature that connected the changing landscape of intercity transportation in western Canada—with a particular focus on Manitoba—and the ongoing crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women, girls and two-spirit-plus people.
The continent-wide shift toward automobility hit Manitoba in a particular way. Many of the smaller bus lines and passenger train routes closed in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It is within this context that the near collapse of intercity bus transit occurred in the 2010s. Of course, as we are all aware, Greyhound withdrew from its already diminished western Canadian routes in 2018. In the same year, Jefferson Lines cancelled its remaining trip, which ran between Winnipeg and Fargo, North Dakota. A year later, the third company to try the Winnipeg-Selkirk route in a decade ceased operation.
Five years later, it is clear that the existing landscape is not sufficient to maintain reliable fixed-schedule bus routes in the province. There's a shifting patchwork of operators covering some routes at some times. Only two offer daily service. They are the shuttle running between Brandon and Winnipeg's airport, and NCN Thompson Bus Lines, owned by Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, running a Winnipeg-Thompson route. You can take Maple Bus Lines from Winnipeg to Thompson five days a week, Mahihkan Bus Lines from Winnipeg to Flin Flon five days a week, and Ontario Northland eastward six days a week.
As a sidebar, I'll note that the relative strength of north-south links, in comparison to east-west ones, suggests the importance of indigenous governments to any transit solutions in this context.
There is only one bus running weekly from Winnipeg to Regina, leaving after midnight on Saturdays. In late January 2023, you could book a trip through from Winnipeg to Vancouver that would take three transfers, cost about $419, and take about 37 hours. Something has changed since then, and as of last night, that route was no longer available. That leaves Via Rail's twice-weekly trip between Toronto and Winnipeg, with all the limitations this committee is well aware of, as the only possible public transit connecting western Canada's eastern and western parts.
The highly limited and confusing possibilities of existing intercity bus travel in Manitoba affect some people and communities more than others, as Dr. Jaffe has spoken to. We have too little data on exactly who depends on the bus in the age of automobility and air travel. The cratering of intercity operations in Manitoba and the prairies as a whole means that it's difficult to collect the kind of data that we all agree needs to be gathered to design the sort of transportation system that will adequately serve people and the communities they are a part of in the 21st century.
We know that women have a greater reliance on public transit, both around the world and within Canada. We know that around 18% of people in Manitoba are first nations, Inuit or Métis. We know the national patterns of violence against indigenous women, girls and two-spirit-plus people come to rest in particular ways in this place. We know that indigenous peoples experience higher rates of poverty, which makes the shifts towards automobility come to rest in particular ways.
That the sharp diminution of intercity transit options had implications for indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people was a point made in the wake of Greyhound's withdrawal from its western Canadian routes. The Native Women's Association of Canada explained in 2018 that they were deeply concerned for the safety of indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. A year later, the final report of the national inquiry on murdered and missing indigenous women offered an important analysis of public transit, one that I think deserves more attention than it has received in this context. Chapter 7, in particular, explains how a lack of safe and affordable transportation can mean that people are forced to rely on methods such as walking or hitch-hiking, not only to escape dangerous situations but simply to travel for education or for employment. In this way, inadequate infrastructure and transportation, or transportation that itself becomes a site for violence, effectively—and I quote here—“punishes indigenous women”.
Two of the national inquiry's calls for justice directly concern transportation: Number 4.8 calls upon “all governments to ensure that adequate plans and funding are put into place for safe and affordable transit and transportation services and infrastructure for Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people living in remote or rural communities.”
In conclusion, I would say that effective transit policy must consider the needs and lived experiences of its users, who are not interchangeable but are people whose lives are shaped at the intersection of gender, economic resources, location and indigeneity.
The current lack of intercity public transit in Manitoba is a crisis in service, but it is also, by extension, one in data. Learning about the users of a service that currently does not exist presents particular challenges.
One thing I would urge your committee to do is to listen to those who have connected the lack of a reliable, accessible intercity public transit option to ongoing patterns of violence against women, and particularly violence against indigenous women, girls and two-spirit-plus people, and consider how a revitalized network of national transportation might play a role in addressing that.
Thank you very much.