Transport committee  I think because of the way that most first nations governments are structured, there are local initiatives taking place in different communities. I know, for example, that in Saskatchewan there are some that operate small vans that go from their community into an urban centre whe

Transport committee  I can't give an informed opinion about that, or an informed response.

Transport committee  The situation in Canada is that we have some provinces that think they have the lead on a lot of issues. However, I think in the case of a national transportation system, if we look at it not just from the perspective of buses but as a centralized network and a transportation sys

Transport committee  Those are some of them. Of course, another one is something like people not having access to get out of a situation. For example, some of the drivers told us about picking up people who are fleeing situations of abuse in their home communities. They can no longer exit those com

Transport committee  What STC actually found—I'm using them as an example because they had really good statistics, which we need more of in Canada in terms of the bus systems—was that of the people who rode buses, 60% were women and 71% were vulnerable populations. First of all, when we look at that

Transport committee  Some of the other factors would be people having access to loved ones. Another factor in the province of Saskatchewan is where you have a mother and father living in different communities. Through social services, children are now being put in taxis with social workers. You look

Transport committee  When STC was shuttered in the province of Saskatchewan, one thing that we continually asked the auditor to do was to provide a social audit, because the government said it was done on cost. We wanted to know what the actual cost was. The social audit would include things like pe

Transport committee  I could basically speak on that, I think, from the example of STC. In that case it was passenger transportation, but it was also charters that were profitable. It was also the system of bringing goods from one location to another, which is also profitable, so there are profit arm

Transport committee  I think that just speaks to the need for a nationally led transportation system and one that engages a broad base of citizens across the country. Canada doesn't have a lot of transportation studies. A lot of studies have been done internationally. Transport Canada and Infrastruc

Transport committee  Ditto to what Dr. Alhassan is saying, but what this also illustrates is that intercommunity, intercity and inter-regional aspects—all of these aspects of a transportation system—are interconnected, and we can't address one without addressing the other ones. When you asked me wha

Transport committee  Sure. I think there are lots of directions where that can go, but let me start by saying that the motive of private carriers is profit. If the route is not profitable, why would they continue having services on that route? A case in point to this is in Saskatchewan, where the g

Transport committee  It said, “Accessibility is a fundamental human right and we are committed to ensuring that this right is realized in practice.” A successful transportation—

Transport committee  Thank you for inviting me to present. I want to start by acknowledging the indigenous territory, Treaty 6 and homeland of the Métis, where I am situated today. I've been a public transportation user and researcher, and I'm currently residing in Saskatchewan in a community with