Transit

Transit

Getting cars off of the road is the single biggest and most attainable way for local impact on lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Safe, reliable, accessible, regular and comfortable transit is a vital tool in dealing with challenges around affordability, staffing, inequity, poverty, driving under the influence, social connectivity and parking and in giving people access to services and jobs. Not to mention the traffic….

1. Local Transit:

Current local transit (aka where we’re at): VoP, Líl̓wat Nation and SLRD Area C are partners in the current transit system that includes both a local service from Pemberton to Xet̓ólacw and the commuter system between Pemberton and Whistler. It is administered by the VoP and governed by the transit committee partners. The committee refers back to Councils and Board.

The challenges:

• The local bus doesn’t reach residents in the N'Quatqua and D’Arcy area, further down the lake road or Pemberton Meadows. This is a key to getting folks from those areas to jobs and services in Pemberton and connecting people to further transit (Vancouver anyone?)

• The commuter bus to and from Whistler is not frequent enough, with important gaps in service in the morning, midday and late evening. Also it tends to be quite full at peak times.

• There is no connection beyond, we need regional transit so that residents can go from the Pemberton Valley to North Van and downtown Vancouver. See regional transit below.

What’s being done:

• A review of fares and schedule to see how we can maximize the system and best serve riders within the current framework.

• Discussions with partners, neighbours, BC Transit and the Ministry of Transportation to look at funding models moving forward. The Ministry, in collaboration with BC Transit and local governments, has just completed a demand study for the corridor that will also inform that work.

• Construction of a Park and Ride, or Transit Hub, next to Signal Hill Elementary School that will have 50 parking spaces, bathrooms, lockers, bike lock ups, EV chargers and will be completed in 2023.

What’s next:

• Look at other means; buses are not the only way to connect folks from the more remote areas with Pemberton and further transit. We need to explore creative and current methods of doing that, from car sharing, to transit on demand, handydart and I’m sure there are more!

• When (not if!) there is success in bringing in a regional system, the Pemberton/Whistler commuter service should be included within it. This will allow local partners to examine how to best direct funds into the local transit and increase service. All of this requires continued and persistent work with the Ministry of Transportation, BC Transit and partners.

2. Regional Transit:

The issue: We need regular, safe bus service from Líl̓wat Nation right through to Vancouver that is connected with the corridor’s local services. Plain and simple.

About six years ago representatives from Squamish Nation, the District of Squamish, The Resort Municipality Whistler, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, Líl̓wat Nation and the Village of Pemberton came together with the unified vision of bringing an integrated and comprehensive regional transit system to the corridor. A partnership was formed and a committee created (on which I still sit). We have worked together to come up with models for governance and funding with both the Liberal and now NDP governments on how to implement them.

The challenges: The cost of this system cannot be shouldered solely by local taxpayers and by bus fare revenues; funding and other aspects of governance in establishing a regional transit system require support from the provincial government. While there has been general agreement on the need to establish one we are still working really hard with the Minister of Transportation on the how.

To be honest, we all wanted to see this up and running last year and things have moved more slowly than we might like. As long as I am in the Mayor’s seat I will relentlessly continue to emphasize to the Ministry the importance of making this a reality, and work with our partners to do so. I am encouraged by some of the meetings we’ve had with the Minister of Transportation these past few weeks. We will make this happen!